Emotions
by FeralShadowwolf
Summary: As Trip and T'Pol begin a romantic relationship, T'Pol starts to lose her Vulcan emotional control. Things only become that much more complicated when Koss hires the Suliban to kidnap her in order for T'Pol to become his mate. Twist at the end! TT pairin
1. Evening Revalations

**Emotions**

T'Pol was in her quarters, meditating, concentrating on the hot flame of the candle and centering herself. Vulcan's had to do this regularly to keep their emotions under control. Most Vulcan's did it once a day, but T'Pol had started doing it whenever she had the time alone and was off-duty.

Ever since last week, T'Pol was having trouble focusing on what she was doing and seemed to have wandering thoughts about Commander Tucker. It was serious, her thoughts only lasted a couple seconds, but it wasn't normal either. Most of the time it wasn't an issue, but rarely, he entered her thoughts for no logical reason.

A few weeks ago, the Commander had been badly injured in Engineering. Doctor Phlox could find no way to cure him except to grow a clone of Commander Tucker in order to use its tissue to replace the Commander's. The clone, Sim as it was called, had been working for the Enterprise until it was Commander Tucker's age to keep himself busy. T'Pol had recognised what was called by humans as a 'crush' in Sim's teenage years. She thought nothing more of it until he had confessed his love for her when he knew he wasn't going to live long. In the heat of the moment, T'Pol had kissed Sim, which was now turning out to be a huge mistake. Now, when she looked at Commander Tucker, she saw Sim and was reminded of her intimate moment with him. Of course, Commander Tucker knew nothing of it. So that was T'Pol's huge problem.

For the last week, since Commander Tucker had regained consciousness, she had been meditating more and had told Commander Tucker that she couldn't participate in the neuropressure sessions anymore. He seemed disappointed and had asked why, but she just blamed it on too much work piling up and he seemed to have accepted it. Sometimes she missed Trip's inappropriate sense of humour and his deep blue human eyes, but she couldn't be near him until she had stopped these feelings. Interrupting her meditation, her front door buzzed.

"Come." Came her dry reply and blinked for the first time in what seemed like ages. She stood up and stretched her legs. After her meditation, she felt more centered and in control of her slightly _off _emotions.

"Hey T'Pol." Came Trip's cheery voice. Suddenly all those thoughts of kissing Sim came flooding back to her. She hadn't seen Trip in days and felt a sense of happiness and frustration at seeing him. However, she fought for a neutral face and greeted him.

"Commander." T'Pol nodded. "Is there something I can do for you?" Trip looked around her room and saw T'Pol's meditation candle glowing brightly.

"I'm sorry, I'm interrupting. I'll come back another time." He turned to leave.

"No, it's quite alright." T'Pol automatically said. Trip had a surprised look plastered across his face. T'Pol never wanted anyone to come to her when she was meditating, unless it was an emergency. If T'Pol had noticed his surprised look, she hadn't said anything, so Trip moved on.

"I have those new warp core schematics you wanted to take a look at." Trip said, handing her the pad of information.

"Thank you. I'll look over them shortly." As T'Pol reached for the pad, her skin touched his for only a moment, but she got a tingly feeling. Panicked, she grabbed the pad from his hand quickly.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Trip asked softly.

"Doing what?" T'Pol looking up from the pad and kept her face blank.

"Avoiding me. Yesterday you saw me come around the corner and you turned around." Trip said, a bit frustrated. T'Pol stared at him for a moment.

"I realised I forgot something and needed to get it." T'Pol explained, still with a neutral look on her face.

"Ok. Then why did you cancel our neuropressure sessions?" Trip's voice getting slightly louder.

"I believe I have explained that to you-" T'Pol began.

"And don't give me that 'piling up of work' crap, ok? I didn't argue before cos I figured something came up and you couldn't tell me, and if that's the case then say so, but I haven't seen or heard from you in like a week. Why?" Trip seemed really concerned.

"You seem agitated, Commander." T'Pol concluded as if she'd just been deaf through his entire speech.

"Yeah, a little. Don't change the subject. Why are you all jumpy around me?" Trip questioned, feeling like he was talking to a brick wall, except you'd get more from a wall.

"I am not 'all jumpy' as you put it." T'Pol replied calmly.

"Oh yeah?" Trip took out his hand to put on her shoulder and she instinctively stepped back. Trip gave T'Pol a look as if to say 'Yeah, then what was that?'

T'Pol looked to the floor for a moment to consider what she was going to say.

"I'm sorry Commander, but I should really read those schematics." T'Pol walked to the door to usher him out. Instead Trip just stood there, crossing him arms and leaning against her wall.

"Oh no, you're not getting rid of me that easy." T'Pol sighed and moved away from the door, which closed it. Without realising it, she'd moved closer to him. "You're going to tell me what I've done to make you like this."

"That would be illogical since you haven't done anything and I have no problem." T'Pol countered, quickly looking at his lips and then refocusing on the issue at hand.

"Don't bring up the logic card." Trip said, more loudly than intended. T'Pol raised her eyebrow, questioning his outburst.

"Commander-"

"Look T'Pol," He cut her off. T'Pol wondered why the Commander used her name instead of rank so frequently, and then realised that she had been detecting his habits, which was another sign of her problem. "I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on."

"There is nothing that I'm aware of that would make me look at you differently. Now would you please leave." T'Pol said it as more of an order than a question.

"Nope." Trip grinned and T'Pol was sure it was just to make her annoyed. Well, it worked. T'Pol took a few menacing steps towards Trip and her mood was close to breaking.

"I can't tell you, so leave it!" T'Pol shouted. Trip was surprised at her outburst. He wasn't sure whether to run scared or congratulate himself for making T'Pol show emotion.

"No, you can tell me, you just won't." Trip said gently, standing up so that, once again, he looked down at her.

"Get out." T'Pol threatened through clenched teeth.

"Why?" Trip asked, moving closer to her. T'Pol kept walking back, refusing to answer his question. "Are you afraid of me?"

"No." She defied, stopping herself from moving any further back.

"Than why are you avoiding me, not talking to me, or whatever you wanna call it?" Trip shouted. They were standing very close together and shouting angrily at each other.

"Because you're making me lose my Vulcan control!" T'Pol blurted loudly.

Trip looked at her, totally surprised and confused. T'Pol instantly regretted her words.

"If you're not going, I will." T'Pol muttered and head for the door. Trip grabbed her arm and pulled her around.

"Let me go." T'Pol said in a low, threatening voice.

Trip maintained a steady look and said, "I think we need to talk."

"I don't think there's anything to talk about." T'Pol answered and twisted herself out of his hold and went back for the door. Trip grabbed her again and she resisted, both of them ending up toppling over onto the bed. Trip had secured her arms so that she wouldn't hit him and they were facing each other, inches apart.

"This is not the T'Pol I know. Your emotions are taking over. Not that I'm complainin'." Trip joked. T'Pol was not amused.

"I know, that's why I've been meditating more, trying to control myself and…"

"Avoiding me." Trip filled in. "But why? Before last week, you were fine around me. What changed? I was in a coma, I couldn't have…" Trip's face fell as he was hit with realisation. Doctor Phlox had informed him about Sim after he had been cured. A look of utter shock and dismay ran across his face as he looked at T'Pol.

"Did he do something to you?" Trip looked angry.

"He didn't hurt me if that's what you mean." T'Pol said so quietly that Trip barely heard her.

"Then what happened?" Trip asked. He was getting tired of not knowing. T'Pol looked into his blue eyes and once again her mind replayed her and Sim's kiss.

"He said that he was in love with me." T'Pol answered. Trip said nothing and in that instant T'Pol wished she knew what was Trip was thinking. "And then I kissed him." T'Pol had seen almost all the human emotions now, so it surprised her to see a lot of shock, embarrassment and perhaps jealously all at once.

"Wow." Trip took a moment to process this information and released T'Pol from his hold, allowing them both to sit up.

"He also said that he didn't know if these emotions were his or…"

"Mine." Trip finished. He looked up at T'Pol and she seemed a little self-conscious. Trip didn't really know that Vulcan's felt anything, let alone showed it when they did. T'Pol looked at him to search for the answer to her unasked question.

"Well, how good did he kiss?" Trip smiled, only half joking. Once again, T'Pol did the Vulcan equivalent to blushing.

"Commander, I really don't think-" T'Pol started.

"Trip." He corrected.

"Not while we're on duty." T'Pol said. Trip checked his watch.

"Not on duty anymore." Trip grinned and tapped his watch annoyingly. "Hang on a minute, if you kissed Sim, then why was _I _the one that screwed up your Vulcan control?"

"Well, Sim was technically, you. Also, I've been experiencing some minor emotions that I should contain inside of me." T'Pol answered.

"What kind of emotions?" Trip asked, his arms crossed. T'Pol couldn't help but inhale Trip's natural scent that seemed to make her temporarily dizzy with delight. _Emotions like that, _she thought to herself.

"Emotions I shouldn't have." She replied, not keeping her eyes off him. Trip grinned at her cryptic answer. He could almost taste the scent of her. It was so unlike anything he's ever smelt. _She _was so unlike any woman he'd ever _met. _

Suddenly, T'Pol had pushed herself up on him, touching her lips with his. Trip, although a little surprised, kissed her back passionately. Almost as suddenly as the kiss started, T'Pol pulled back. Now Trip was totally confused.

"I'm sorry," T'Pol looked to the floor and then regained her professional stance. "I should not have done that and I would appreciate it if you would forget about it and everything I've said here." T'Pol apologised. When she regained eye contact with Trip, he was smiling and swore his eye sparkled like they did in those old human movies that trip made her sit through.

"T'Pol, having these feelings aren't a bad thing. Heck, it might even be good for you to experience them." Trip suggested. He wasn't sure when it started, but over the past few years, Trip had come to respect, admire and even love T'Pol. Knowing she liked him as well was a load off his mind. Or was it more on his mind? This relationship was already confusing and it hadn't even begun.

"It is not Vulcan custom to show emotions. It only makes one weaker." T'Pol argued.

"T'Pol, you're the strongest person I know. Emotions have nothing to do with it." Once more, Trip got close to her, for just one more chance to touch her. T'Pol had always seemed very self confident and sure, but now she seemed like a shy, self conscious woman.

"I wouldn't expect a human to understand-" T'Pol started gently, but was cut off by Trip's outburst of affection. T'Pol had never experienced the human way of mating, but it seemed very similar to the Vulcan way. T'Pol left all thoughts of logic and reason behind as Trip embraced her passionately and fiercely. They slowly moved to the bed, removing their clothes as they went.


	2. The Next Morning

**The Next Morning**

When Trip woke up the next morning, T'Pol was gone. Although Trip understood that now working together would be that much more complicated and uncomfortable, Trip didn't understand why she just left.

After he had yawned and stretched in T'Pol's bed, he couldn't help but smile, thinking back to last night. When he was with T'Pol, he felt a new sense of completion. Trip had a feeling that T'Pol enjoyed it too by the fact that they never stopped touching. It was incredible.

Trip had a shower and then got dressed for another day of work. He decided that after his shift, he would go see T'Pol to talk to her about last night. Just as he was about to leave, Captain Archer buzzed through the intercom.

"Archer to Commander Tucker." Trip walked over and pushed the intercom.

"Trip here, Capt'n." Trip replied.

"We need you down in Engineering. The Sub-Commander will assist you." Captain Archer said. Trip considered saying something more to the Captain about T'Pol, but he decided against it. If it was going to work between him and T'Pol, there couldn't be any weirdness.

"On my way." Trip clicked off and headed for Engineering. _I guess I'll see T'Pol faster than I thought, _Trip replayed scenes of last night as he considered what to say to T'Pol.


	3. Engineering Plans

**Engineering Plans**

In Engineering, Trip could already see T'Pol helping Ensign Harris with some schematics he was having trouble with. Today T'Pol looked slightly different than what she had looked like in the past week. Today she seemed more tired and more distracted than usual, like last night gave her a boost of what she already had. Trip walked up to her and Ensign Harris.

"I'm sorry Ensign, could I borrow the Sub-Commander for a moment?" Trip asked.

"Of course." Ensign Harris resumed his work while Trip took T'Pol's arm and dragged her to a dark corner, where no one would see them.

"We need to talk." Trip whispered. The last thing he wanted to do was cause a scene.

"Yes, Captain Archer wants you to relay the core reactor for some 'tuning up', as he put it." T'Pol stated.

"No, about last night." Trip cleared up.

"I really don't think it's the time or place, Commander." T'Pol stiffly replied. No doubt she was trying to be professional, but how to accomplish that after last night seemed hard, if not impossible. On the other hand, this was T'Pol. If anyone could hide emotions, it was her. But, as Trip thought before, today she seemed edgy, a little human almost.

"I told you, it's Trip." He said, smiling.

"And I told you, not while we're on duty." T'Pol's face stiffened. She too had flashes of last night swimming around in her head.

"I don't think that after last night that holds much weight." Trip laughed.

"Perhaps, but we should not speak of it now." T'Pol reasoned.

"When then?" Trip asked. T'Pol always had a way of complicating things.

"Don't we have our neuropressure tonight?" T'Pol asked and Trip grinned. That meant she wanted to see him again.

"Ok. Tonight then, at 2100 hours?" Trip asked.

"That would be suitable." T'Pol answered. With that, T'Pol walked back to Ensign Harris and Trip got to work on that core reactor. On occasion though, they would both look at each other and hold their gazes for a few seconds before getting back to work.


	4. Hoshi Spies With Her Little Eye Somethin...

**Hoshi Spies With Her Little Eye Something Beginning With Love**

Hoshi had stopped by Engineering to say a quick hi to Trip and invite him along to the weekly movie night. Tonight they were showing a 20th Century classic, 'Lethal Weapon'.

As Hoshi stepped into Engineering though, she glanced to the corner and could see the Commander and Sub-Commander talking privately. Usually, Hoshi was never one to eavesdrop or spy, but this looked interesting. Although Hoshi was an expert at most, if not all, languages, she'd never mastered the art of lip-reading. However, the Commander and Sub-Commander's body language suggested that something intimate had happened, which was making them both a little nervous. Trip smiled and she could see that behind T'Pol's neutral face, she seemed a bit nervous, but pleased at Trip's presence.

As they departed from each other, Hoshi couldn't help but notice the way they sometimes looked at each other, quite affectionately and excitedly. Hoshi smiled to herself. For a while now, she had been aware of Trip's growing feelings for T'Pol - unbeknownst to Trip – and it seemed that T'Pol took comfort in Trip as well.

_So much for 'Lethal Weapon'! _Hoshi smiled and walked straight back out of Engineering.


	5. Choices

**The Second Night**

Before Trip had gone to T'Pol's quarters, he'd showered and put on some light cologne. Just in case. When he had got to T'Pol's, she had traditionally covered her room with candles. According to T'Pol, they were necessary for concentration.

"You're late." T'Pol stated. Trip had always admired the way she stated things with such precision. He'd only been five minutes late.

"Hello to you too." Trip replied dryly. T'Pol was wearing her blue silk pyjamas and Trip wore a white tee shirt and sweat pants.

"Trip, I've thought about last night and I think we should not continue." T'Pol moved uncomfortably to sit on her bed.

"Easier said than done, darlin'." Trip replied, sitting next to her on the bed.

"I would prefer it if you wouldn't address me like that." T'Pol requested.

"What? You mean the 'darlin' remark?" Trip asked and T'Pol nodded her head. "Sorry, it just slipped out." After a silent pause, Trip asked, "So, I should leave."

Trip got up to leave, but T'Pol quickly got up to stop him.

"I see no reason to stop doing the neuropressure sessions if we both remain professional." T'Pol suggested. Trip turned around and gave her a defeated look.

"What do you want from me?" Trip asked, spreading his arms out and then dropping them by his side again.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about." T'Pol stayed neutral. She wanted him so much it hurt, but to continue this, whatever this was, was madness. This morning she woke up and she was more alert, more sensitive and most of all, emotions that she had never experienced before had attacked her from all angles. It was like being with Trip had magnified her emotion crisis.

"You're giving me mixed signals here. First you avoid me, then we sleep together, I saw you glancing at me in Engineering, you break everything off and then still want to continue with the neuropressure?" Trip finally breathed, quite frustrated and confused.

"Neuropressure isn't supposed to be intimate." T'Pol countered.

"Could've fooled me." Trip murmured.

"I'm sorry if I've given you the wrong impression, Commander-"

"And then there's that. Why when we argue do you call me Commander and when we're doing neuropressure do you call me Trip?" He argued.

"I hadn't realised I did that." T'Pol shrugged. Not literally of course, he'd never actually seen T'Pol shrug.

"T'Pol, I'm going to be honest with you. If you want some kind of a relationship, I won't pretend that I'm not interested, but you can't keep changing your mind. I can't wait for you forever. You either want me or you don't." Trip said, a little relieved he got that off his back. T'Pol took this into consideration, not making eye contact. "Your choice." With that, Trip left, leaving T'Pol with swirling emotions that were beginning to give her a migraine.


	6. The Second Night

**The Second Night**

After Trip's confrontation with T'Pol, he'd sworn at himself too many times to count. Yes, he wanted T'Pol and yes, he knew she had mixed feelings about it, but to totally scare her off like that was stupid. No, not stupid – foolish, idiotic, brainless and any other things he could think of.

Trip had climbed into bed, hoping that sleep would bring him the serenity and peace he desperately needed. No such luck. By 1am, Trip still hadn't gotten to sleep and kept thinking about to T'Pol. Every time he thought he was about to go to sleep, there she was. Pulling him out of his thoughts, the door buzzed.

_Who the hell could that be at this time? _Trip walked to his door, half awake. When the doors parted, T'Pol stood there, looking really nervous.

"I'm sorry to disturb you." T'Pol whispered.

"No, it's ok, I was just reading actually. Come in." Trip moved out of the way and let T'Pol come in. She was still in her blue PJ's, which made it that much harder for Trip to concentrate on what she had to say.

"I've been thinking about what you've said and I'm sorry if my actions have caused you distress." T'Pol began. Trip nodded his head for her to continue. "I suppose if I'd been thinking logically to start with, I shouldn't have kissed Sim, which lead me down other paths I shouldn't have taken." Trip nodded his head, beginning to see where this was going. "Which is why I've decided that I cannot do this. It is illogical for a human and a Vulcan to form a romantic relationship."

Trip took her hands in his and T'Pol felt a charge, as if she'd been shocked electrically.

"I don't know about you, but whether it's logical or not, I can't stop feeling this way." Trip was dangerously close to T'Pol's lips and once again fantasized about touching her.

"We must try." T'Pol said pathetically quietly and unconvincingly. She was drowning in his liquid blue eyes again. Trip brought her up to his lips and passionately embraced her. _I shouldn't be doing this, I have to stop, this isn't why I came. _There were so many opportunities for T'Pol to put a stop to this kiss, but no words came out, her brain seemed to have shut down. Yesterday, this wouldn't have been a problem, but today, after last night…

"See," Trip breathed, pulling her away to look at his face. "Not so easy." Without a moment's hesitation, T'Pol pushed herself up on him, hungering for Trip's familiar scent and taste. She felt his body pushing against hers and his hands moving everywhere. She wanted to devour him, piece by piece, until they was nothing left, until, she had no more strength. Once more Trip had been able to take over her like no other had been able to before.


	7. Corridors

**Corridors**

In the morning, Trip was thankful, but quite surprised, at seeing T'Pol still in his bed. Trip grinned at the sleeping Vulcan and wrapped his strong arms around her, letting her soft naked skin comfort him. It wasn't long before T'Pol's eyes fluttered open to meet Trip's gaze.

"Mornin'." He said, smiling.

"Indeed." T'Pol snuggled closer to Trip in the most subtle way she knew how. After last night she felt relaxed and renewed, but she knew from yesterday's experience, that wouldn't last long. In a few hours she would feel the worry of losing her Vulcan control, the weird queasy feeling that she had experienced yesterday and then overall uncertainty on what to do about the whole Trip situation. But for now, she was happy just to be close to him.

"You wanna go to the Mess Hall later for breakfast?" Trip offered.

"I have to do some work." T'Pol replied, feeling rather than seeing Trip's disappointment. She had also become quite in tune with his emotions, more than usual.

"I should shower." T'Pol moved out of Trip's embrace and walked to his bathroom.

"Want any company?" Trip grinned mischievously. T'Pol raised an eyebrow and continued to walk to the bathroom, choosing to ignore his somewhat bold request. He knew he was only joking, of course. Or was he?

Trip could hear running water and he decided to get dressed.

T'Pol came out with his towel covering up her body and he couldn't help but look her up and down.

"It seems I have a problem." T'Pol said, holding up her blue silk pyjamas. Obviously she hadn't intended on staying all night. "It would be inappropriate for me to wear only my night clothes around the ship to my quarters." Trip laughed and wrapped his arms around her, holding her so that they could still look into the other's eyes.

"You could stay here all day." He smiled.

"That would be-"

"Illogical. I know. But it would be nice." Trip sighed. A day off wouldn't kill them would it? Well, if they ran into a Xindi warship, actually, it probably would. "I'll go get you some clothes."

Hesitantly T'Pol kissed him and then pulled back, looking at him meaningfully. Trip smiled and released her from his hold. Trip had a feeling that T'Pol was definitely coming into the idea of them being in a romantic relationship.

"I'll be right back." Trip walked out of his quarters and proceeded down the hall to T'Pol's quarters. On his way, he spotted the Captain coming toward him.

"Hey Trip." The Captain smiled.

"Capt'n." Trip nodded, stopping when he saw that Captain Archer wanted to have a little chat. _As long as it doesn't take too long, _Trip thought.

"Have you seen T'Pol? I stopped by her quarters, but she wasn't there." The Captain inquired. Trip felt a sudden guilt about lying to his friend, but he had too. T'Pol didn't want anyone to know about their relationship yet, and deep down, neither did Trip.

"No. Have you tried the Mess Hall?" Trip suggested as casually as he could. Captain Archer displayed a strange look on his face, almost a knowing face. But there was no possible way to know, was there? If he did know anything, he didn't say.

"I'll check there now. You wanna join me for breakfast?" The Captain offered.

"Wish I could, but I've been summoned to Engineering." Trip put on a fake disappointed face.

"Ok, maybe another time." With that, Captain Archer went in search of T'Pol.

Trip didn't want to lie to the Captain, he was basically his best friend, but Trip felt it necessary.

After retrieving T'Pol's clothing, his favourite little red number, he bumped into Hoshi and Travis on his way back to his quarters.

"Hey Trip." Hoshi greeted. Trip didn't really feel like talking, with T'Pol waiting for him and all, but he didn't want to be rude.

"Hi Hoshi, Travis." Trip smiled.

"Missed a great movie last night." Travis chuckled.

Hoshi looked down to see what Trip was carrying. "Why have you got T'Pol's clothes?"

_Ut oh, _Trip's face went pale. He needed a good excuse. Now.

"Um, T'Pol spilt her drink in the Mess Hall and I offered to go get her clean clothes." Trip smiled, but also held his breath, hoping that they bought that. Travis and Hoshi looked at each other, confused.

"We've just been to the Mess Hall and we didn't see T'Pol." Travis said, his face drawing a blank.

"Right," Trip's smile fading fast. "That's because she's now in Sickbay checking on a complaint by the Doc." Trip lied. He caught a glance of their disbelieving faces and decided to get the hell out of there before anyone else came round the bend. "What is this? The Spanish Inquisition? Sorry guys, but I gotta go." Trip hurried past the both of them and walked rapidly down the corridor, leaving Hoshi and Travis smiled at each other knowingly.


	8. Evening Plans

**Evening Plans**

"Sorry it took awhile," Trip huffed as he came through the door to his quarters. Looking up, he saw T'Pol lying on his bed with the towel still wrapped comfortably around her. "Ran into the Captain, Travis and Hoshi." Trip handed her clothing over to T'Pol and she retreated to the bathroom to get changed.

Trip made his bed and quickly tidied the rest of his stuff up. When T'Pol came back out of the bathroom, she looked like his Sub-Commander again and decided he liked it better when she came out of her shell, so to speak.

"I should go." T'Pol said, almost reluctantly after they both had gazed at each other for a few seconds.

"T'Pol," Trip said, stopping her from leaving. "I presume you wanna keep this between you and me, and I just wanted to, you know… I really enjoyed last night."

"Likewise." T'Pol answered. She always had a way of taking the romance out of things, but he didn't mind. It was just a relief that T'Pol felt the same way as him.

"So, do you wanna hook up later or would you prefer something like dinner?" Trip asked.

"Dinner sounds nice." T'Pol answered. Until she saw Doctor Phlox about her emotional issues she had been experiencing, she should limit her intimate time with Trip. After the other night, things only seemed to have gotten worse in that department, but she didn't want to worry Trip. She kissed Trip lightly on the lips and left his quarters, leaving Trip with a smile on his face.


	9. Checkups

**Checkups**

Sickbay was usually quite busy. With many crewman aboard the _Enterprise, _someone was always hurt or in some form of pain. Today though, Doctor Phlox had no patients and he was grateful for the time he had with his pets.

After feeding them, Doctor Phlox discovered Sub-Commander T'Pol standing just inside the door.

"Can I help you Sub-Commander?" Doctor Phlox smiled in his Denobulan way.

"I'm not sure." T'Pol's troubled expression made it clear to the doctor that something was wrong and ushered her to sit down. When sitting, T'Pol continued. "I've been experiencing… emotions. I should be able to control them, to keep them repressed, but lately it's been harder, to say the least. I've tried meditation, but everything has seemed a bit blurry since a few nights ago. I wondered if there was something wrong with me internally." T'Pol shifted uncomfortably. If she could avoid it, she didn't want to bring up Trip.

"What kind of emotions?" The doctor inquired.

"Well, non stop thinking about one particular pers… thing, feelings of excitement, nervousness and ultimately… passion." T'Pol finished awkwardly. She knew the doctor would keep this confidential, but she still felt uneasily about telling him. Doctor Phlox had been listening intently while the Sub-Commander had explained her so-called symptoms.

"Let me ask you, Sub-Commander," Doctor Phlox tried to put this as gently as possible. "How you been doing anything different lately? _With _anyone in particular?" T'Pol visibly flinched as another flash of her encounter with Trip last night and the night before swam through here mind. It was official. She couldn't escape it. Trip had gotten under her skin and into her mind. The scary part was that she didn't seem to mind.

"Well," T'Pol started slowly. "Commander Tucker and I have seemed to strengthen our relationship." T'Pol half-lied.

"In what way?" The doctor pushed.

"Doctor, is this relevant?" T'Pol replied stiffly.

"I think so. If this newfound relationship with Mr. Tucker is the only thing that has really changed, then it's possible that that's what's causing your emotional outlets."

"Is there any way to stop them?" T'Pol asked.

"I'm afraid the only way to stop them completely is to stop this infatuation with Commander Tucker." Doctor Phlox said quite finally. T'Pol tried to think this through with a lot of concentration. T'Pol looked at him intensely and then pushed her irrational mind away. She had to keep all possibilities open.

"There must be another way." T'Pol said almost to herself.

Phlox sighed. "Can I offer my advice, Sub-Commander?"

"Please do." T'Pol answered.

"Experiencing these emotions may be somewhat strange and uncomfortable for you, but if you're also experiencing this time with Mr. Tucker that you seem to like as well, then could you live to work with them?" The Doctor inquired.

"It is not Vulcan custom." T'Pol raised her voice slightly. Realisation hit her when she knew that her emotions were uncovering themselves more and more. There was no reason for her to lose her control when the doctor made his inquiry, but it happened. It proved that even when she wasn't around Trip, it was happening and it seemed to only progress.

Doctor Phlox was a little shocked by T'Pol's small, but definitely human emotion based outburst. "Is a Vulcan state of mind worth losing Mr. Tucker? I think that's the choice you have to make."

"Can't I have both?" T'Pol almost whined.

"You can't have a logical mind in love I'm afraid." The doctor chuckled.

"Could you just check me up with the tricorder? Just to put my mind at ease." T'Pol asked, regaining her professional tone.

"Of course." The doctor almost sighed. Getting up he went into his office, he returned a second later he returned with the tricorder. T'Pol stood up and he ran the tricorder a few centimetres in front of T'Pol.

"Everything seems normal." The doctor concluded. "I think you just have a lot on your mind, that's all."

"Thank you doctor." T'Pol said before leaving.

"My pleasure." The Doctor said.

As T'Pol walked out of Sickbay, Phlox thought, _Good thing I'm not a gossip._


	10. Putting The Puzzle Together

**Putting Together the Puzzle**

Later that evening, the Captain, Hoshi and Travis were all seated and having dinner in the Mess Hall. After talking about the ship's good condition, the Xindi Mission and how everybody was, Travis had begun a new topic that seemed to strike an interest.

"Did anyone notice weird behaviour coming from Trip and T'Pol over the last few days?" Travis asked and then bit into his steak.

"Yes." Hoshi dropped her knife and fork, pouring all her attention into the new, more important topic. "I went into Engineering the other day and I saw trip and T'Pol talking very privately in the corner."

"That could have been about work." The Captain intervened.

"I know, but they seemed quite close and when they separated, they couldn't take their eyes off each other." Hoshi wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"And what about this morning? Trip carrying T'Pol's clothes? And the lame attempt at lying." Travis asked incredulously.

"He was carrying his clothes?" Captain Archer said, very surprised.

"Haven't you noticed anything sir?" Travis asked.

"Well, now that you mention it, I'm fairly certain that Trip lied to me this morning." The Captain saw two confused faces staring back at him. "When you've known Trip for as long as I have, you know that he's a rotten liar." The Captain smiled, but continued. "Anyway, he seemed like he was in a rush and I asked where T'Pol was and he said the Mess Hall. She wasn't there."

"Trip said the same to us, but as we were just in the Mess Hall, he fed us some line about T'Pol being in Sickbay." Hoshi revealed.

Before anyone else could say anything, Malcolm and Doctor Phlox stood before them.

"Do you mind if we join you?" Doctor Phlox asked, cheerily.

"Not at all." The Captain welcomed and pulled up two more chairs to the table.

"We were just discussing the Commander and Sub-Commander's strange behaviour." Travis updated. Doctor Phlox instantly looked down to his food, trying to avoid the subject. He had doctor/ patient confidentiality to keep to.

"Speaking of that," Malcolm tuned in. "I did a crewman count and position quite early this morning, about 0700 I'd say, and Sub-Commander T'Pol was in Trip's quarters." Travis, Hoshi and Captain Archer looked at each other while they processed this new and shocking news. Everyone seemed deeply interested except for Doctor Phlox.

"Haven't you noticed anything, Doctor?" Came the question the doctor was dreading. Since he had been a small child, he had never been able to lie successfully well.

"Nothing out of the ordinary." Doctor Phlox answered the Captain neutrally.

"You know that every time you lie your nostrils flare, right?" The Captain laughed, as did everyone else.

"Ah, so that's how my parents caught me." The Denobulan smiled.

"So what do you know?" Hoshi asked, every pair of eyes now on Doctor Phlox. He sighed; he'd never been able to keep a secret for long either.

"Sub-Commander T'Pol came in this afternoon, claiming that she has had problems concentrating the last few days… that her emotions have been out of her Vulcan control." The doctor muttered. He left out the part about Commander Tucker, although he was sure they'd figure it out.

"Ok, so let's get this straight," Malcolm concluded. "T'Pol and Trip are acting coupley in Engineering, he lies about her whereabouts, it turns out she was in his quarters in the early hours of the morning, and T'Pol is having emotional problems. Did I leave anything out?"

"I don't think so." Hoshi replied.

"So what does this all mean? I mean, you don't think that…" The Captain trailed off, but he thought that everyone had come to the same conclusion.

"It's a possibility. Well, more than likely actually, when you consider the facts." Doctor Phlox answered. Everyone played with their food for the rest of the meal until Hoshi looked up.

"I think this could be a good thing. For both of them." Hoshi said. With uncertain nods coming from all directions, no one picked up that Captain Archer felt a little confused and jealous.


	11. A Normal HumanVulcan Dinner

**A Normal Human/Vulcan Dinner**

Trip had got dressed in a casual, yet smart suit and had dabbed on a bit of cologne. He and T'Pol had decided to have dinner in the Mess Hall tonight to try and sort everything out. The Mess Hall was, to quote T'Pol, the most 'logical' choice, as neither of their rooms were big enough.

Trip walked down to T'Pol's quarters, where he buzzed her door. T'Pol opened the door from the inside, and she stood there wearing one of her Vulcan outfits, that by human description could be called a tight-fitting tee-shirt and a long skirt with a twist. As usual, T'Pol's outfit was crimson red, and he thought that she must of figured out that it was his favourite color on her. Trip knew that T'Pol only wore these types of clothes on special occasions and he very much appreciated the effort.

Trip grinned. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you." T'Pol replied modestly.

"Are you ready to go?" Trip asked, extending his arm in a gentlemanly fashion.

"Yes." She took her arm in his and the doors automatically closed behind her. As they walked down the corridor towards the Mess Hall, several officers and ensigns passed by, looking at them questioningly. T'Pol began to feel a little uncomfortable.

"Do you think we're drawing too much attention to ourselves?" T'Pol whispered.

"Maybe. But it's really none of their business." Trip replied, but sensed her unease. "Do you want to go back?"

"No, I'm fine." T'Pol reassured him. They continued down the corridor, ignoring the judging faces that passed them.

When they had got to the Mess Hall, they were surprised, if not shocked and nervous, to see the Captain, Hoshi, Travis, Malcolm and the doctor having a very late dinner. The whole idea of them showing up late was to avoid everyone. Trip and T'Pol looked at each other self-consciously.

"There is no reason to leave because of them." T'Pol stated, but underneath her neutral voice was a layer of nervousness.

"Right. Let's go in the corner, then." Trip walked over to the corner table, pulled out a chair for T'Pol and then sat himself down. Before either one of them have a chance to speak, a human that everyone seemed to called 'Chef' appeared.

"Commander, Sub-Commander," Chef greeted brightly. "Eating late like your colleagues, I see."

"Yeah," Trip laughed uneasily. Turning to T'Pol, he said, "Are you ready to order?"

"Yes." Turning to the Chef, she said, "I'll have the specially prepared Vulcan plat-tu."

"And I'll have the steak with mashed potatoes on the side." Trip smiled in appreciation.

"Would you like some wine?" Chef asked. Trip looked at T'Pol as if to say 'Whatever you want'.

"Please. We'll have some red wine, from the Californian district on Earth." T'Pol replied and Trip was impressed with her suggestion.

"Great. I'll be back with your food and drinks in a moment." Chef disappeared to leave Trip and T'Pol alone once more. T'Pol glanced to the table where her other colleagues were seated and it seemed that they hadn't noticed them yet.

"Do you want to continue with the neuropressure?" T'Pol asked.

"Yeah, it really does help me sleep. Besides, I get to spend time with my favourite Vulcan." Trip smiled. Once again, T'Pol did the Vulcan equivalent of blushing. In that moment, Trip noticed that she was almost as nervous as him, except she hid it better. The Chef arrived with the wine and poured it into their glasses. With an appreciative nod from Trip, Chef returned into the kitchen.

"So maybe we should talk about the past couple nights." Trip suggested. T'Pol looked down subtly and started playing with her napkin. Trip decided to go first, hoping to ease T'Pol into the subject. This would be an uncomfortable topic for both of them, Vulcan logic or no.

"For me, well you know how I feel about you and I'm happy with what we're doing now." Trip said. T'Pol looked at Trip and found that, without trying to, she could feel very comfortable with him.

"I am also having a good time, but I can't help worrying about my Vulcan logic. I was taught to always keep my emotions buried inside of me, but when I'm around you I erupt – especially over the last couple of days." T'Pol confessed.

"Do you want to keep them covered up? On Earth, we find that emotions give us power." Trip said encouragingly.

"I appreciate that, but I'm not human and to succumb to emotions, that I have spent my whole life burying, could cause me some problems." T'Pol explained.

"Is there anyway you could fix this and still see me? Maybe Phlox could –"

"I already tried that. I went to see him this afternoon." T'Pol almost sighed. "He said that the only way to stop it would be to stop doing what causes these emotional outbursts, and even that's not a certainty."

Trip seemed really frustrated. "There must be someway to do both. There's a human expression, 'If there's a will, there's a way'."

T'Pol smiled, and although it was rare, Trip found her even more beautiful when she did.

"We just need to find the way." Trip smiled reassuringly and reached over to hold her hand. T'Pol appreciated the gesture and took comfort in his ongoing effort to make this relationship work, no matter what.

Holding hands over the table, they talked about how each other's life was going on board _Enterprise, _what life was like back home and childhood memories. Before long, their food had come and they had totally forgotten about their other colleagues sitting over from them and watching closely.


	12. Spying

**Spying**

"So, what do you make of it?" Malcolm asked as he peered over to Trip and T'Pol's private table.

"Looks like romance to me." Hoshi smiled.

"It could be anything." The Captain murmured, his back turned to Trip and T'Pol's table. He refused to believe anything his officers were talking about. "They could be talking about improving some section of the ship."

Everyone looked to Captain Archer, who now seemed a little embarrassed by his outburst.

"With all due respect, sir," Malcolm said in his British accent. "Wouldn't they talk to you about that?"

"Yeah," Travis agreed. "Besides, I don't think they'd be holding hands if they were talking about work."

"What!" The Captain swerved around on his chair to see Trip, his best friend, looking extremely comfortable and coupley with T'Pol, _his _Science Officer. Not wanting to see anymore of it, Captain Archer removed his napkin and got up as subtly as he could manage.

"If you'll excuse me." The Captain didn't wait for an answer; he just walked, rather stiffly, to the door. All of the others looked at each other, completely dumbfounded.

"What was that about?" Hoshi exclaimed.

"It seemed the Captain was uncomfortable, which might denote jealousy." Doctor Phlox answered.

"Jealous? Of Trip?" Malcolm scoffed. "The Captain's above that."

"Although Captain Archer conveys a sense of superiority, we mustn't forget, he's still human. And humans are always very emotional. Actually, there's this funny story…" Doctor Phlox looked up to see 3 pairs of human eyes looking slightly offended. "Wrong crowd." The Denobulan muttered.

"Look how comfortable they seem around each other." Hoshi directed everyone's attention back to Trip and T'Pol. "Even T'Pol looks a little emotional."

"Yep." Travis agreed.

They all stared in Trip and T'Pol's direction, each secretly envious that they hadn't the same relationship with anyone else.


	13. After Dinner

**After Dinner**

T'Pol and Trip had finished dinner a while ago, but were enjoying each other's company.

After talking for a long time, T'Pol sensed people watching her. She turned towards the door and spotted Hoshi, Travis, Malcolm and Doctor Phlox looking in their direction.

"What's wrong, T'Pol?" Trip asked, following her gaze. Trip realised, as well as T'Pol, that he and T'Pol were being watched by his friends on a table that he had tried hard to avoid.

Seeing that Trip and T'Pol had found them staring at them, Hoshi, Malcolm, Travis and the doctor quickly averted their stares and got up making transparently obvious excuses like "Oh my, is that the time?" and "Well, that was a lovely meal, must be off!" It was all Trip could do not to laugh as they all stumbled out of the Mess Hall.

"It would seem that we've been discovered." T'Pol mused.

"Maybe, but I don't think they'll gossip about it. Does it bother you that they know?" Trip asked, concerned.

"Slightly, but we can't do anything about it." T'Pol smiled reassuringly.

"Right you are." Trip grinned back. "You wanna get out of here?"

"Sure." T'Pol put her napkin on her plate and took Trip's arm once more as he led her back to her quarters.


	14. A Captain's Anxieties

**A Captain's Anxieties**

_How can this be? _The Captain thought angrily. It was Trip and T'Pol! He was still trying to grab hold of the idea and wasn't having much success.

He's poured himself a brandy before getting into his bed with Porthos already sleeping comfortably beside him on the floor.

_A few years ago, I had to pry them apart to sop arguing, and now they're having dinner dates? _Jonathon clenched his teeth in frustration. It wasn't so much that he liked T'Pol in that way, or disapproved of Trip, but if they became a couple, he would pretty soon be the third wheel and pretty soon, they might totally ignore him.

_This is crazy,_ Jonathon thought, tucking himself in. _I'm being paranoid! _

Drifting off to sleep, he heard a soft pleasant moan from Porthos before he fell asleep himself.

_Before long, he found himself in a garden with the sun gently falling upon him. He was back on Earth, their Xindi mission was a success and everyone was at peace._

"_All right Jon?" Trip asked. He had aged about 20 years, which probably meant that he had too._

"_Trip!" Jonathon smiled. Trip smiled and then faded away, leaving him alone once more. Confused, Jonathon spun around to find himself back on the _Enterprise_, and he was knocked onto the floor in result of an attack by a rival ship. The Captain saw T'Pol running round the corridor._

"_T'Pol?" The Captain asked, dazed._

"_Captain, you should be off the ship." T'Pol responded, in a surreal tone._

"_Why? What's going on?" _

"_The Xindi are tearing the ship apart. Trip and I are staying, without you." T'Pol said, a little forcefully._

"_But we were just on Earth, the mission was over." The Captain replied, utterly confused._

"_Goodbye Captain." T'Pol then faded out, just like Trip had before her. A final bang exploded the ship and a blinding light headed toward the Captain._

Waking up in a sweat, the Captain took a few gasps before realising that he was back in his quarters, nothing was wrong. Still quivering from his dream, the Captain came to a decision. Tomorrow, he would put an end to T'Pol and Trip's relationship. For the good of the mission, the ship and for his peace of mind.


	15. Goodnight Kiss

**Goodnight Kiss**

"Thank you for dinner, it was most enjoyable." T'Pol said as she stood by her front door. Trip had escorted her there. She'd claimed it wasn't necessary, but Trip argued that he was a gentleman "and that's what we do." T'Pol was fairly certain that he just liked spending the extra time with her.

"For me too." Trip grinned. "So, how were the emotions are dinner?"

"Acceptable. I think that with more time, I could be able to control them." T'Pol replied.

"Good, because I'm not giving you up without a fight." Trip smiled. T'Pol leaned forward and planted a kiss on his soft lips. She pulled back to have a feeling of deep compassion for Trip and she felt that he responded.

"So much for the neuropressure, eh?" Trip laughed.

"If you want to do it now…" T'Pol offered.

"Oh no, it's okay. I'll let you get your sleep. Some other time." Trip answered softly.

"I'll see you tomorrow then." T'Pol said and with one more quick kiss goodnight, she turned around and entered her quarters.

_Damn, that girl can kiss! _Trip shook his head in amazement and walked back to his own quarters.


	16. Restrictions

**Restrictions**

Morning came, not that Trip could tell by looking out of his window. Only distant stars and the wide-ranging space filled it.

Trip got up, showered and got dressed, ready for another hard-working day at work.

The intercom buzzed with Captain Archer asking for him.

"Trip here, Capt'n." Trip replied cheerily. The thought of a new day, new possibilities, bought the happiness out of him. He had always been a morning person.

"Could you meet me in my ready room, please." Captain Archer said it more as a command than a request.

"Be there in five." Trip replied.

Making his way to the Captain's ready room, Tip pondered why the Captain wanted to see him so early in the morning. Also, T'Pol was on his mind. Of course, when was she not? He was wondering when he'd see her today.

Entering Captain Archer's room, he was drinking some coffee and Trip could sense that he was agitated.

"Mornin' Capt'n." Trip greeted. The Captain, or Jon as Trip called him when they were off-duty, was Trip's longest friend on the _Enterprise _and had known each other since Starfleet Academy.

"Hey Trip." Jonathon greeted, but his mind seemed somewhere else. "You want some coffee?"

"Wouldn't mind if I do." Trip accepted and went over to pour some coffee for himself. Joining his Captain to sit down opposite him, Trip could see that he was troubled.

"Is there something wrong, Capt'n?" Trip asked, concerned.

"I heard about you and T'Pol." The Captain said quietly, almost as if he was ashamed. "Actually, I saw you two having dinner in the Mess Hall yesterday."

Trip wasn't surprised, he sort of anticipated that Jon would figure it out, but he was a little confused as to why the Captain looked like Porthos had just died.

"Yeah, I guess it couldn't be a secret forever. But is there a – " Trip considered his words carefully. "Do you have a problem with it?"

The Captain looked like he was about to say something, but stopped himself. "It's just I wish you would have told me earlier."

"It only started a few days ago and T'Pol didn't want anyone knowing yet." Trip explained, but could still see that his friend was a little hurt. "I almost told you Monday morning, but I decided against it." He added.

"Still, maybe you two getting involved is not the best idea." Jonathon suggested.

"In what way?" Trip was totally lost.

"I mean, you work with T'Pol, so it will inevitably complicate and distract your work. Plus, if you two break up, you wouldn't talk to each other or even get your work done." The Captain argued.

"T'Pol and I talked about that, it won't happen. To quote T'Pol: 'It would be illogical.'" Trip laughed, but Jonathon wasn't easily swayed.

Before either of them could say anything else, a message came through the intercom.

"Captain, there's a ship approaching at Warp 2. We can't tell what type of ship, sir." Travis informed him.

"Leave it be. Probably just a trade ship." The Captain replied.

Captain Archer returned to his conversation with Trip and decided to get to the point. "I would prefer it if you didn't date her."

Trip looked at the Captain, his so-called friend, with a hint of anger in his eyes. "Are you saying that you called me here, at this hour, to tell me to stop seeing T'Pol because it _upsets_ you?"

The Captain didn't say anything and avoided Trip's glare. Trip stood up abruptly. "You can't tell me who to see or not, you don't have the right." Trip left for the door.

"I'm your Captain." Jonathon rose from his chair authoritively.

"But apparently not my friend." Trip left quickly and angrily, leaving the Captain to his reeling thoughts.


	17. VulcanNapped

**Vulcan-Napped**

Infuriated with anger, Trip stomped his way to T'Pol's quarters, forgetting for now about his morning shift. He pressed T'Pol's door buzzer several times before he came to the conclusion that T'Pol wasn't there.

Frustrated, he turned to the computer. "Computer, locate Sub-Commander T'Pol."

"Sub-Commander T'Pol is in the Mess Hall." The computer replied in its female voice.

"Must've gone for an early breakfast." Trip muttered to himself and walked with anticipation to the Mess Hall. He needed to discuss the Captain's preposterous argument with T'Pol immediately.

As he walked by, Trip could have sworn that a shadow had passed above him, but when he looked up, nothing was there. _Great, now I'm seeing things, _Trip thought.

Before he even got into the Mess Hall, Trip knew that there was something wrong. A Starfleet weapon, which had already been fired by the looks of it, was lying, almost hidden, on the floor. It was a miracle that Trip had seen it.

Trip considered his options. Either he called for back up and T'Pol could be injured while security got there, or he took his chances alone and try to save T'Pol, and probably other officers by himself, setting himself up against countless enemies.

"Well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." Trip muttered before reaching for the phaser and cautiously entered the Mess Hall.

To his surprise, no one heard the doors open, so he had a chance to hide and assess the situation. T'Pol and four other officers, including Chef, were being held captive by six Suliban. Each Suliban had a full arm phaser and each had the ability to change its physical shape. Basically, Trip was outgunned, out-manned and out-manoeuvred.

Still, those slippery bastards were holding T'Pol captive and Trip couldn't just leave her there.

Stepping out of his hiding place and raising his gun, he said, "Put your weapons down and release the crewman."

No one looked more shocked to see trip than T'Pol, although the Suliban's vizards came close.

"And if we don't?" One Suliban challenged.

"Then I'll blow your ugly head off. Trust me, I'd be doing you a favour." Trip smiled threateningly.

"Trip, get out of here." Came T'Pol's voice, but it was cut short when a Suliban officer harshly punched T'Pol in the face, causing her to collapse on the floor.

"Hey!" Trip shouted and began to walk over to T'Pol. Before he realised it, he'd let down his guard and weapon, which left him defenceless. As if in slow motion, a Suliban pointed his phaser and had fired at Trip. Clenching his chest in pain and falling backwards, he could see T'Pol trying to get to him. Holding her back, the Suliban who shot Trip took out his communicator.

"All ready here, sir, we have the Vulcan."

Shoving the other four crewmen aside, the last thing Trip saw was T'Pol's desperate and afraid face as the Suliban transported out. The moment she was gone, Trip's vision went black.


	18. Arguing Doesn't Help

**Arguing Doesn't Help**

When Trip awoke, his first thought was about the humming silence in his head and his very bruised chest.

His eyes fluttered open and discovered that he was in Sickbay with a bandage around his lower chest wound.

Clenching his fists, Trip struggled to sit up.

"Ah, nice to see you conscious again, Commander." Doctor Phlox's voice rang in Trip's head like a fire alarm.

"Why is my head so heavy?" Trip slurred.

"Drugs to help you sleep, I'm afraid." Doctor Phlox answered as he tended to his alien 'pets'. The Captain came in, looking slightly pissed off, and Trip was reminded of the fight they got into about…

"Wait? Where's T'Pol?" The urgency in Trip's voice made the Captain look at him in a slightly jealous, but mainly blaming, way.

"The Suliban got her because you decided to act like a hero and not call security." Captain Archer almost shouted. If anything over his time with Archer, Trip knew that he always struggled to hold his temper.

Ignoring the Captain, Trip turned to Doctor Phlox. "How long have I been out, Doc?"

"Almost 3 hours." The Doctor answered.

"Are we following the Suliban ship?" Trip asked the Captain angrily.

"No, one of the Suliban jammed the Warp Flux Capacitor, we can't go beyond Warp 2." Captain Archer replied calmly. No doubt he blamed all of this on Trip.

"Dammit! I'm going down to Engineering to –"

"Oh no you're not." The doctor interrupted. "You need to rest and let your bruises heal."

"Doc, T'Pol is gone!" Trip shouted.

"And why is that, Trip?" The Captain yelled, accusation in his voice.

"Don't you dare blame this on me!" Trip threatened.

"You could have called for back-up!" The Captain argued.

"You could have listened to Travis when he told you that the ship was coming this way!" Trip returned. Suddenly, Doctor Phlox's pet cages started rattling and screeching, on top of Trip's headache, this day couldn't get any worse.

"You're disturbing my pets." The Doctor explained after they had calmed down. "Besides, arguing isn't going to help the Sub-Commander."

"He's right." Captain Archer began to act all superior again. "Commander, get down to Engineering and fix that Flux Capacitor."

"Fine, you work with Travis to find any leftover Plasma trails." Trip commanded.

"I didn't ask for your order." The Captain retorted, looking shocked that he dared talk back to his Captain.

"I'm the Commander. Giving commands is what I do." Trip replied. Without another word, Trip limped around his Captain and walked to Engineering with only one thing on his mind. Saving T'Pol.


	19. Following Plasma Trails

**Following Plasma Trails**

After hearing from Doctor Phlox that the other four crewmen associated in the Suliban attack were fine and back to work, the Captain immediately went to the bridge.

"Travis, how are we doing with the Plasma residue from the Suliban ship?" The Captain asked, hoping for good news, but preparing for the worst. They'd been trying to look for Plasma residue since the attack, but the Suliban had seemed to have found away to cover their tracks.

"I've done some modifying to our sensors to sharpen their detections in one specific place and I've found very faint trails leading away from this area. To be honest Captain, that could be the residue of any ship that passed by here within the last few days." There was a hint of defeat in Travis's voice, but as always, he remained positive.

"Well, since it's our best and only choice right now, lay in a course to intercept it." The captain ordered. "I'll be in my ready room, Travis, you have the bridge."

"Aye, sir." But Captain Archer was already gone.


	20. The Ready Room

**The Ready Room**

Hoshi noticed that the Captain had been a little distracted on the bridge and had gone to his Ready Room, as a friend, to see if she could help out.

The door buzzed on the inside and Hoshi could hear her Captain and friend's voice say, "Come."

Inside it seemed more of a study where one might ponder their thoughts and drink tea, than work on plans for the ship. Nevertheless, Hoshi could see Jonathon Archer work sleeplessly in here whenever the occasion arose.

"Hey Hoshi, what's up?" The Captain pinched the ridge of his nose between his eyes, which suggested much non-needed stress and tension.

"Actually, you look like you need a friend." Hoshi smiled and sat opposite Jon on a rather lumpy armchair. He smiled tiredly and relaxed in his chair.

"Just been hectic, the last few days." The Captain explained bluntly. Hoshi was probably the closest thing he had to a sister and loved her like one. She always seemed to be attuned to his emotions, which suited him great when he needed to talk.

"But this only started today." Hoshi said confused.

"I know, but it's other stuff too." Jon confided.

"You mean like Trip and T'Pol?" Hoshi smiled understandingly. Once again, Jonathon laughed to himself about how attuned Hoshi was.

"Yeah, like Trip and T'Pol." He replied sounding depressed.

"I don't really understand it though," Hoshi said and Jon looked confused, so she continued. "How can you be mad at Trip for liking the same woman that you do? It's a bit hypocritical, don't you think?"

The Captain looked at her as if she'd just confused the whole thing even more, but underneath, he sort of understood what she was saying.

"I know what you mean, but it doesn't really matter. It still hurts." Jon said. Hoshi looked at him steadily. She knew that he looked at her as a sister, but she'd been in love with him for so long, it hurt when he spoke of liking another woman.

"There are plenty of fish in the sea." Hoshi smiled, hiding her true feelings. Jon laughed and realised that she was right.

"Thanks Hoshi, I don't know what I'd do without you." Jon smiled appreciatively. By the final tone in his voice, Hoshi realised it was time to leave. They both stood to get up and Jon went in for a hug. He never realised how much comfort he took in Hoshi and her hair smelt really great. Pulling back, they made perfect eye contact and Jon felt that he saw Hoshi, for the first time. He _really_ saw her. Leaning in, he realised that they were about to kiss. They were centimetres from each other, before, "Tucker to the Captain."

Being interrupted, Hoshi and Jon pulled back, each blushing a little bit about what they were about to do. Clearing his throat, he replied, "Archer here."

Hoshi, not wanting to face whatever little chat was about to come, instantly walked out of Jon's ready room, while his back was turned.

"The Warp Capacitor is up and working, sir." Trip replied.

"On my way." The Captain buzzed off and turned around to find that Hoshi had disappeared. One thought came rushing at him; it was both terrifying and exciting. What had just almost happened?


	21. The Suliban Ship

**The Suliban Ship**

It had been about three and a half human hours since T'Pol had been taken captive. She was sitting in, what must have been the brig. A very dark, dank and disgusting brig.

All T'Pol knew was that she was on a Suliban ship. She didn't know where she was heading or why she'd been abducted.

For a few hours before, T'Pol had been placed in the brig, the Suliban had been asking questions about her home planet – Vulcan – the High Council and Starfleet's alliance to Vulcan. Of course, T'Pol told them nothing, which resulted in T'Pol being pummelled by three Suliban. When she tried to fight back, four more Suliban secured her to a chair and pumped a Suliban made drug, that basically took the effect of muscle relaxant, into her bloodstream.

Just for her disobedience, and the fact that they could, the Suliban trio punched her several more times, causing cuts in her skin, where her green blood poured out of them. Her head felt like one large, and rather painful, lump. On top of that, she hadn't been fed since last night. Not a great day.

T'Pol's latest worry was that her cuts would get infected in this sewer-type prison. She thought she saw what must have been the Suliban equivalent to human rats pass by, but it was too dark to be sure.

Her logical mind would try to get it together and make a plan of escape. However, apart from the fact that T'Pol lacked the strength and was too tired, there were about forty Suliban on the ship. She was already physically ill and there was no telling if _Enterprise _was anywhere near her present location. _Enterprise. _Trip. Her mind wandered over to him again. She'd tried to be strong and stay positive, keep her mind off him, but it was too hard. In the back of her mind, she could see him smiling, laughing, touching her.

What Trip did, risking his life for hers, was utterly illogical. Although, as Trip had shown her time and time again, logic didn't pack much of a punch when you were in love.

T'Pol had never thought about a future with Trip, she'd never really found the time. Although it only had been a few days since they had been romantically involved, she'd known him for almost three Earth years.

Now, he could be dead. She had tried to get to him after he had been shot, but the Suliban scum had held her back. They refused to tell her if they'd set their phasers to stun or kill; they seemed to enjoy her distress. In all likelihood, Trip had been killed; the Suliban weren't exactly the stun-gun friendly and more with the killing. Still… For some unexplainable reason, T'Pol felt that if Trip were dead, she'd feel it. She wasn't ready to give up hope quite yet.

Interrupting her thoughts, T'Pol heard someone coming through the doors. She quickly composed herself and sat up straighter. She wasn't going to show one ounce of fear or weakness; it would give them too much power over her.

"Sub-Commander," The Suliban that T'Pol had considered the leader said. T'Pol just glared defiantly at him.

"I tryst you're comfy here." He smirked.

"Are you going to answer my questions?" T'Pol asked, steely-eyed.

"Why would I do that?" He answered, shrugged.

"I'll take that as a no. In which case, we have nothing to discuss." T'Pol stated.

"Well, I wouldn't say that." The Suliban said, pacing in front of her. "First of all, my name is Malug, and you may address me as Captain." T'Pol stifled a laugh. "Second, my men tell me that you haven't answered any of my questions, therefore I have no reason to answer yours."

"Your questions have been unacceptable." T'Pol said evenly.

"That's not your concern. I will decide if they're acceptable or not." Malug raised her voice. The two soldiers behind him tensed slightly. No doubt they feared their somewhat unstable Captain.

"In any case," T'Pol replied. "I refuse to answer your questions. At least until mine are answered."

Malug got impatient and yelled. "You lie!"

"Perhaps, but it seems your only logical choice." T'Pol countered.

"You Vulcan's and your pithy logic," Malug spat. "You think you're so superior, but you're not. You're just like stubborn humans."

With that last insult, he stomped out of her cell, leaving T'Pol alone once more, with none of her questions answered. But she felt that Malug was close to breaking.


	22. Checkups 2

**Checkups 2**

Trip had been updated by Ensign Smithley on the progress in getting the Warp Flux Capacitor back into shape while he was unconscious; and for the last half hour, he had made the progress that his officers had failed to make in three hours.

Aside from his mind numbing fear on what those Suliban scum had done to T'Pol, Trip had put his personal feelings on hold, so that he could work with the Captain efficiently.

As it turned out, nothing was jamming the Flux Capacitor; a Suliban shoe had been chucked at the Power Relay and had thrown it off course. No doubt that the person responsible for that was the 'shadow' Trip had almost encountered earlier. He hit his head with frustration. Still, it was an easy fix, which probably meant that the Suliban just wanted to slow _Enterprise _down, not stop it completely. _Great, _Trip thought, _more unanswered questions to ponder. _

After he'd given the 'A-OK' to the Captain, and the ship had gone to Warp 5 to pursue the Suliban ship, Trip hummed with anticipation to have T'Pol safely in his arms again. He was also aware of her concerns about these emotions and her Vulcan upbringing, so, to kill some time, he thought he'd drop by Sickbay to talk to Doctor Phlox. Trip knew that T'Pol had already seen the doctor, which probably meant he knew about the two of them, but if there really wasn't any other way to stop the emotions than to stop seeing Trip, he wanted to find out for himself.

"Hey Doc." Trip greeted as he walked through the doors.

"Be right with you Commander." The doctor replied as he finished feeding his very unusual alien pets. Trip had never actually seen one, but had heard them rattle in their cages, and he wondered if they were always that aggressive.

Reappearing from behind Doctor Phlox's private study, he looked at the Commander as if he was searching for the place where he might be in pain.

"Can I help you in some way?" The Denobulan asked.

"Well, yeah. I know T'Pol came in here yesterday, but I needed to come myself." Trip explained.

"I presume you are talking about her emotional imbalances?" Doctor Phlox said, matter-of-factly.

"Yes." Trip answered. Once again, Doctor Phlox lead Trip to a chair to explain it all.

"I hoped that you would come in. I think that you need to know what T'Pol is going through, perhaps more than anyone." The Doctor sighed and Trip clenched, preparing for the worst.

"Her condition is this; Vulcans count on their ability to… _conceal_ their emotions, they feel it makes them able to think with a clear mind. Now that T'Pol is feeling these emotions, she thinks that her judgement may be clouded, and is losing her sense of logic. In a way, she fears that she's becoming more human." Trip listened intensely as the doctor explained.

"Could this evolve into some kinda illness?" Trip inquired, almost sitting on the edge of his chair.

"You don't understand, Commander. T'Pol thinks that this _is _the illness. She asked me if there was anyway to _fix _her." The doctor stressed. "I think that she's feeling the effects of an illness that isn't there."

Trip took this all in and had a concerned, but mostly worried, look on his face.

"What can we do?" Trip asked.

"There's nothing I can do. I took a scan of her yesterday, I haven't looked at it yet, as I suspect that there's nothing physically wrong with her. However, I think that you need to give the Sub-Commander a lot of support right now. You need to let her know that she can control these emotions if she wants to, but letting them burst out will not cause her any psychological damage to her Vulcan heritage." Doctor Phlox advised.

Before Trip could answer back, the intercom buzzed. "Captain Archer to Commander Tucker."

Trip walked over to the intercom system in Sickbay. "Tucker here, go ahead Capt'n."

"We're coming up to the Suliban ship, five light-years enclosing. I don't think they've sensed us coming yet."

"Yes sir" Trip hesitated to say more, but stopped.

"Was there something else?" The Captain voice came through the intercom.

"Not that I'm not thankful, but why are you telling me?" Trip asked.

"I thought you'd like to know, and I need you on the bridge." The Captain requested. _Maybe there's hope for this friendship after all, _Trip smiled.

"On my way, and thanks." Trip buzzed off.

"Thanks Doc, I appreciate it." Trip gave a short nod to Doctor Phlox and headed out to the bridge. Not knowing what the Suliban ship had done to T'Pol had given him new fears and concerns. It seemed that every hour a new thing was added to his list to worry about.


	23. Trading

**Trading**

It had been another hour since Malug left and T'Pol could already see and feel her cuts being infected. They itched and when T'Pol had tried to rub them, it only resulted in the cuts reopening and green blood oozing onto her hands. T'Pol felt sick. Sick from the filth in the cell, sick from the lack of food, and sick of fear. She had come to realise that she could not escape fear anymore than a mouse from a cat. Still, T'Pol clung to the hope that _Enterprise _would come and she'd see Trip again.

Malug and the Suliban knew that the muscle relaxant would last for at least 24 more hours, but for their safety, they had refused to untie her from the chair. The little rat-like things, which were more a cross between the Human rat and the Vulcan S'kalic, (a very hairy and ferocious vermin that pestered Vulcans on Vulcan) were piling up by her feet and were chewing on her damp shoes. She feared that before long, they would bite through the shoes and into her feet.

Suddenly, the soldiers guarding her cell stiffened and stood up straight in a respectable fashion. Malug appeared and open the heavy Suliban metal door with only a push of a button.

"Hello again Vulcan." He greeted in an insulting fashion.

"Malug." T'Pol make eye contact in a defiant way.

"We have no more need of you." Malug stated flatly and T'Pol looked up with curiosity. Since he had just spent more than four hours hitting her for information and he went to the trouble of kidnapping her, it seemed curious for him to just dispose of her. T'Pol raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"We have found someone a little more willing to part with the information we need." Malug smiled menacingly. Although T'Pol said nothing, she was very interested on who this person was.

"Interestingly enough, he's Vulcan." Malug continued. _Who could this traitor be? _T'Pol racked her brain for anyone who sprung to mind. "Still, he doesn't want to part with this information lightly and as any good tradesman, he has a price."

"I refuse to see what this has to do with me." T'Pol sounded fed-up and tired of being in this filthy place.

"We're trading you." Malug spat. Seeing the look of sudden terror in T'Pol's face made him smirk.

"I demand to know who it is you're trading me with." T'Pol almost screamed as the guards took her arms and forced her outside. No matter how much she struggled, her muscles were still not working. There was no answer from Malug, just the sound of his evil laugh.

T'Pol turned round the corner to see a Vulcan head turned away from her.

"She is yours for the necessary information." Malug said to the Vulcan. Turning around, T'Pol instantly recognised his face. Koss, her betrothed. T'Pol almost gasped and gave Koss a look of disgust.

"Hello again T'Pol, it's been too long." Koss smiled.

"What are you doing?" T'Pol breathed.

"Well, when you left for the Human ship, I realised I needed to go to extreme measures to get you back. To be my mate." Koss explained.

"I'd rather eat the droppings of a S'kalic!" T'Pol spat. "How dare you! How could you betray Vulcan?"

"You've been away too long T'Pol. Vulcan has set into two fractions. This is the only way to eliminate the other side and get you back." Koss smiled. T'Pol felt that at any moment she would run over to him and tear his hair out, screaming at him. Instead, T'Pol realised that that would be illogical, she was hopelessly out numbered. These emotions she was having had only been increasing since that night with Trip, she constantly worried about it.

Koss turned to Malug and handed him the PADD of information. "Here is the information you required, I trust it is to your liking."

"And what do you get out of this?" T'Pol spat at Malug.

"The satisfaction that I have inside information on one of my enemy planets." Malug responded. He quickly looked through the PADD and nodded to Koss.

"Live long and prosper." Koss signalled the traditional Vulcan greeting or parting.

"And to you." Malug replied. Turning to his Suliban friends, he ordered. "Take her to the Vulcan's brig."

T'Pol struggled and kicked, and would have been screaming, were it not for her self-respect. As she was thrown, rather violently, into Koss's brig, T'Pol heard Koss command his men to go to Warp 7, towards Munnfa, a secret Vulcan colony that only several knew about. Wherever T'Pol was going, she left her hope of ever seeing _Enterprise _and Trip again on the Suliban ship.


	24. Threats

**Threats**

"Are we in range for communication yet, Travis?" The Captain asked as he was sitting in his chair on the bridge.

"Yes sir." Travis replied. When they had managed to catch up to the Suliban ship, they were quite surprised to detect that they weren't moving, just floating there. Almost as if they were making it too easy for _Enterprise _to find them.

"Hoshi?" The Captain implied.

"Already there sir." Hoshi smiled. Ever since their encounter in the Captain's Ready Room, they'd been smiling and blushing a lot more than usual. Hoshi signalled for when he should speak and Captain Archer nodded.

"This is Captain Archer of the _U.S.S. Enterprise, _please respond." The Captain waited a few seconds before Hoshi said that they'd gotten a response.

"On screen." The Captain commanded. A Suliban was on the front screen dressed in an ugly swamp brown and looking at the Captain smugly.

"What can I do for you Captain?" The Suliban asked. Just then Trip entered the bridge, inhaling the scene.

"I demand that you release my Sub-Commander or I'll be forced to open fire." The Captain threatened.

"I'm very sorry Captain, but that's not possible." The Suliban replied, clearly not sorry at all.

"And why's that?" Captain Archer pried.

"She's just been sold." He smiled.

"Sold?" Trip shouted, and the Captain shot him a look as if to say 'Control your anger'.

"You had no right to do that and as soon as we've retrieved our Sub-Commander, we are taking you and your ship to a Starfleet court order." The Captain replied evenly.

"_If _you find her." The Suliban sneered.

"Where was she taken and by whom?" Captain Archer asked forcefully.

"Oh, I couldn't possibly tell you that. Customer confidentiality, I'm afraid." The Suliban said.

"Listen you conniving little rodent, you tell us where she's gone or you'll have me showing up in all the wrong places for the rest of your life." Trip threatened angrily.

"I'm sorry, but I really can't help." The Suliban terminated contact. The Captain understood now that the Suliban were here to slow them down, hold them off for as long as possible.

"Capt'n, we can't just let them get away." Trip said.

"I know." The Captain said, frustrated. "We need to scare them. Malcolm, open fire."

"Aye sir." Malcolm smiled. Firing weapons was like opening his presents at Christmas for Malcolm.

"Phase Cannons." The Captain commanded. "Fire!"

Everyone on the bridge saw the _Enterprise's _cannons lock and load on the smaller Suliban ship. They shook the ship up a bit and the Suliban returned fire. Minimum turbulence disturbed the ship.

"Shields are holding." Travis shouted.

"Fire!" The Captain ordered. The phaser was aimed at the Suliban's shield core and destroyed it.

"Hoshi, call the Suliban back on screen." The captain ordered. Within a moment, a very pissed off Suliban filled the screen.

"Now, you have two choices. Either you tell us what we want to know or we'll blow your ship into millions of tiny pieces." The Captain smiled.


	25. Meditation

**Meditation**

T'Pol still couldn't believe that Koss had sold information on Vulcan just to claim T'Pol as his mate. It was disgusting and she didn't know how she could have made such a critical judgement error. Being aboard the Suliban ship would have been better than being within 100km of Koss.

Although the brig standards were so much better than the Suliban's, the service wasn't any better. Not only had T'Pol not eaten since dinner, the night before, but she'd now missed breakfast AND lunch. Anymore of this and T'Pol may just disappear into thin air.

Her wounds were now badly infected and her strength still hadn't come back. Her situation seemed to go from bad to worse each second.

The brig door slid open, disturbing her depressing thoughts. Koss came through it with two other Vulcan traitors carrying phasers.

Koss himself carried a tray of food and T'Pol had never wanted food so badly, but to take it from _him _felt like she would be weakening.

"I brought you some food." Koss smiled sincerely as if they were friends.

"I'm not hungry." T'Pol stated, glaring at him defiantly.

"Of course you are. You look half starved and very ill. It would be illogical of you not to eat." Koss argued.

T'Pol shot him a strong threatening look. "You logic is flawed."

Koss flinched as if T'Pol had hit him in a sore point.

"Something has changed about you, T'Pol." Koss said, circling her. "The Humans have had an effect on you."

For a moment, T'Pol panicked that Koss knew about herself and Trip, but she realised that her emotional levels were just something one Vulcan could sense about another. Of course, with the way she had been acting, it wasn't too difficult to figure out.

"Perhaps you should visit my doctor and let him heal you." Koss suggested.

"I'm fine." T'Pol replied aggressively.

"Why are you making this so hard on yourself? I have offered you everything you need." Koss complained.

"What I _need _is my freedom." T'Pol yelled. Koss stopped, surprised by her outburst and T'Pol instantly regretted losing her temper. What was happening to her? Her emotions were taking over.

"Have you lost your Vulcan control?" Koss asked, shocked. T'Pol said nothing, but looking at the floor, ashamed.

"Then you must start with the basics all over again, to learn to control yourself." Koss talked to T'Pol as if she was a child that needed re-educating.

"Guard!" He shouted. A guard appeared almost instantly. He was dressed exactly like the other guards and T'Pol guessed that they had a uniform code to keep to. "Fetch me a candle."

When he came back and the candle was set up and lit, Koss had told T'Pol to concentrate on the flame and had left her to it. She didn't want to do anything that Koss had told her, but she was bored and could use a little clarity at the moment.

Focusing on the flame, T'Pol let her energy bond with the fire. As she closed her eyes, the sparkles danced around the brig. Soon, the brig, Koss and the ship all disappeared, leaving T'Pol with only the candle.

In an instant, T'Pol had been transported to her meditative zone, a white space filled with serenity. Here, T'Pol could sort out her problems one at a time and find a deeper meaning of herself and ultimately have time alone.

As she wandered through all the problems of her day, a strange feeling had been pushed into her personal space. It wasn't a bad feeling, or a scared feeling; it just felt like there was someone else there. Searching and scanning around her area, she found no one there, but was left with an unsettling feeling.

T'Pol blinked and for the first time, there was the figure she'd been waiting and meditating for. Meditation was about achieving clarity and hearing the heart's true wish, and there, standing so close she could almost touch him, was what she, apparently, truly desired.

"Trip." She breathed.


	26. Connection

**Connection**

_Trip. Trip. Trip._ He heard these words over and over in his head for the last few seconds. He had been working in Engineering when, all of a sudden, a voice whispered to him. At first he wasn't sure where it came from before he realised that it was in his head.

Instinctively, he felt that it was T'Pol, reaching out to him. She needed him and missed him fiercely. She was also afraid. Trip felt all of this with only the mention of his name. Trip was wondering what T'Pol could be afraid of and then he felt his own fears of what Koss and his cronies were doing to her.

Obviously, the Suliban, Malug, as he finally revealed, had told the Captain and himself everything he knew to save his ship from destruction. The only useful bit of information that Malug had provided them with was that T'Pol was on a Vulcan ship with terrorist Vulcans and scum of the universe, Koss, T'Pol's betrothed.

Trip felt a fiery volcanic rage when he thought of Koss. _What a jerk, _Trip often thought. T'Pol had told Trip about Koss in their first year on _Enterprise _and back then thought it was surprising that T'Pol had an arranged marriage. A few days ago, he would have thought it an obstacle to go around, but now Trip actually hated Koss. He hated him for taking her. He hated him for the way he thought of T'Pol as just a mate. But mostly, he hated Koss for being able to know T'Pol before him. Apparently, they had spent most of their childhood days together and Trip was jealous that Koss had spent so much time with her.

_Munnfa. Munnfa. Munnfa. _Trip blinked. He realised what was going on now. _Hold on T'Pol, I'm coming. _Trip ran out of Engineering to tell the Captain of the destination that T'Pol was heading to.


	27. Destination

**Destination**

The Captain had decided to let the Suliban off the hook, leaving them with a threat. Frankly, the Suliban were second his list after finding T'Pol and bringing the Vulcan traitors to justice.

Unfortunately, the Suliban hadn't been told whereabouts they were going and there were no traceable trails left from their ship for _Enterprise's _scanners to find. This left them floating in space until some good news popped up.

"Capt'n!" Trip huffed as he barged into the Captain's Ready Room. He looked like he had just run 1000 miles.

"Come on in, Trip." The Captain laughed, offering him a seat. Obviously, the Captain and Trip had a lot to work on in their friendship, but things can't be rushed.

Catching his breath, he said, "I know this sounds a little crazy, but I know where T'Pol is heading."

"How?" Captain Archer looked puzzled.

"It's not important right now. Have you ever heard of a planet named Munnfa?" Trip asked.

"No." The Captain answered blankly. He failed to see where this was going.

"Me either," Trip walked over to the computer and opened a few Vulcan files. The Captain went over to look at what the computer was displaying.

"Trip, what am I looking at?" Captain Archer asked, a little fed up at his friend's mind games.

"These are plans for Vulcan colonies on other planets. A few years ago, the Vulcan High Council decided that colonies would be a good idea to expand the reach of encountering new species. After construction on a far away planet – unpronounceable, don't try it – other species began to wonder if the Vulcans were planning to build more of these and try to conquer new regions of space." Trip explained. "Of course, when the Vulcan's heard of the other aliens worries, they shut down the colony to avoid war."

"Still, what does this have to do with T'Pol?" the Captain sipped his coffee.

"Until a few months ago, a colony on a planet named Munnfa had been totally abandoned, but now other species near the area say they've strange scanner readings from Munnfa. Also, apparently there's been a little civil war going on at Vulcan." Trip finished.

"And you know T'Pol's heading there how?" Captain Archer asked.

"If I told you you'd think I was crazy, just trust me, she's going there." Trip breathed. The Captain walked out of the room and onto the bridge. "Travis, set a course for Munnfa, the computer should be able to locate it. Warp 9." The Captain ordered.

Without a second thought, Travis obeyed his Captain. "Aye sir."

And as _Enterprise _flew through the stars, faster than the speed of light, Trip felt a new surge of determination in finding T'Pol.


	28. New Home

**New Home**

T'Pol had felt some minor turbulence from the ship and thought that they were probably going through an asteroid field or something.

T'Pol was still trying to put her thoughts together on what happened during her meditation. She hadn't seen Trip, but she felt his presence. Calling out his name, the presence felt stronger and more attuned, so she tried to concentrate harder and had said her destination name.

T'Pol could almost make out his face, but it seemed that he was behind a cloud of some sort. Maybe his emotions? The only way a Vulcan got to his or her meditative state was to be completely free of emotions and to have a clear head. Trip may have just been sucked in somehow.

A little confused and with more questions than answers, T'Pol felt greatly relieved that Trip was okay. She got up and walked around a bit, with the flame still flickering in the background. The door opened and Koss appeared.

"Anymore enlightened? Educated?" Koss asked.

T'Pol glared. "Meditation is private. I have no desire to tell you anything."

"Perhaps, but I hoped you'd share it with me." Koss smiled. T'Pol was having a hard time trying to figure Koss out. First, he kidnaps her and then shows her nothing but kindness. Logically, the kidnapping outweighed the kindness, but it was intriguing.

"Would you like to come to the bridge?" Koss asked. T'Pol raised her eyebrows questioningly. Koss gestured her to get out of the brig and T'Pol did so. Surely her chances of escaping improved if she were not locked up in the brig. Koss and two guards escorted her to the bridge, where there were six other officers each at their stations.

The screen showed only the blackness of space and the little diamonds, which illuminated it.

"Sir, we're in visual range of Munnfa." One Vulcan reported.

"On screen." Koss answered.

Immediately, the huge screen in front of them flickered to reveal a natural green, yet cloudy planet almost the size of Saturn, the Human solar system's planet. Munnfa.

"This is your new home T'Pol." Koss whispered in her ear. T'Pol gagged at the thought of living there with Koss.


	29. Restless

**Restless**

It had only been half an hour since _Enterprise _had been heading for Munnfa at maximum warp, but Trip was impatiently bored.

"Maybe you should get some rest, I'll let you know when we get there." Captain Archer kindly suggested.

"Thanks Capt'n, but I can't sleep now." Trip replied. Although thankful for the opportunity, Trip knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep. Not if T'Pol was in trouble.

It was strange. Trip had only known T'Pol a few years and for the first year or so, he didn't even know if he liked T'Pol. But now, now he felt almost sick with worry and panic that something terrible could happen.

"Is there anything you need me to do?" Trip offered, anything to keep himself busy.

"Nope, just sit tight for the next, oh, about forty-five minutes." The Captain replied.

They'd been sitting in the Mess Hall having a very late lunch, but only one of them was eating.

Seeing Trip's extremely distracted look, Captain Archer braced himself at the talk he was about to bring up. "You really care about T'Pol, don't you?"

Trip looked at his Captain in the eye for the first time since their fight. "Yeah. I don't know what it is, but she's always in my head."

Archer shot Trip a sympathetic look. He, too, knew what it was like to be so in love he felt sick. But so many times, he'd been slapped in the face. The _Enterprise's_ Captain was beginning to lose faith in love. At least he was, before Hoshi and him almost…

"We'll get her back, Trip." Archer shook those thoughts out of his head so that he could reassure his friend.

"I know." Trip answered uncertainly.


	30. Escape

**Escape**

T'Pol felt a sudden panic attack come on. If she got on that planet, Koss would certainly be able to hide her so that no one could ever find her. So that _Trip _could never find her. This was no time to panic. If T'Pol was ever going to get off this ship, it was going to be now.

Normally, T'Pol wouldn't result to violence, it was not the Vulcan way, but under the circumstances, this was an exception.

"I wonder if I could talk to you privately." T'Pol requested to Koss.

"Of course." Koss led her to his Ready Room, alone, just as T'Pol had hoped for. One Vulcan would be a lot easier to take out than two.

As they entered Koss's ready room, he motioned for her to sit down. T'Pol declined.

"I had hoped you'd asked me to come hereto discuss our future, but I see you're still unhappy about it." Koss sighed.

"Correct." T'Pol answered.

"I'm going to have some tea, would you like some?" Koss asked.

"No." T'Pol replied. Koss turned his back to her, just the opportunity she needed. T'Pol used the Vulcan hand motion to apply pressure to Koss's back. If she pushed hard enough, it could kill him, but T'Pol just wanted to knock Koss unconscious. Koss toppled over and was fats asleep. T'Pol grabbed his phaser, set it to stun and then went to the computer.

"Computer, send our co-ordinates to the Starfleet ship _Enterprise._" T'Pol ordered.

"There is no Starfleet ship in transmitting range." The computer replied. T'Pol hit the computer in frustration. She'd never shown her emotions so strongly as this before, and was now surer than ever that something was wrong. She'd have to go and see Doctor Phlox again. Surely he was mistaken before. The only other thing she could do was escape from the ship and get as far away from there as she could. She picked up the phaser and headed for the bridge. She opened the door and saw six officers on board the bridge, all doing their assigned duties.

"Don't move." T'Pol shouted, the phaser ready to fire in her hand. Every Vulcan in the room turned to look at her. "Please move away from the control panels."

The Vulcans did as instructed. Out of the corner of her eye, T'Pol noticed the Vulcan at the helm attempt to reach for his phaser. Out of defence, T'Pol shot him, leaving him unconscious.

Every other Vulcan just watched.

"Now, if you could all move into Koss's ready room." The Vulcans walked cautiously around the still armed T'Pol and filed into the room one by one.

When the last Vulcan had gone into the ready room, T'Pol lowered her weapon and sealed the door from the outside, using the control panel.

It was a very small ship, even for Vulcan standards, so T'Pol doubted that there were any other officers on board. There was no way that T'Pol could drive the ship by herself, and obviously there was no one lese about to help her. A shuttlepod. The ship was still moving towards Munnfa, so T'Pol switched it onto autopilot and left everything as it was.

Running towards the docking port, T'Pol realised that even if she had locked that door, Koss and his men would eventually get out and would come after her. Even with a head start, this ship could catch up with her little shuttlepod. Still, she had to try. Logic was against her, but hope wasn't.

Finally she got to the docking port, climbed down the hatch and started the engines up.

"All engines are working." T'Pol reported to herself and she powered up the shuttle pod and disengaged the docking clamps.

The shuttlepod took off from Koss's ship at Warp 2, the fastest the shuttlepod could go. That was not good if Koss's ship started working again.

Suddenly, T'Pol was hailed. "Vulcan shuttlepod, please identify yourself."

T'Pol felt panicky, her emotions resurfacing. She ignored it while she came up with a plausible lie.

"Vulcan shuttlepod, please identify yourself." The husky voice repeated.

"Vulcan shuttlepod here." T'Pol replied.

"Who are you and what is your business here?" He asked impatiently.

"Just doing a routine shuttlepod check-up from the Vulcan Star ship _Vak'Tar._" T'Pol had heard one of her guards mention the ship's name.

"Very well. Continue with your business." The voice cut off and T'Pol exhaled a sigh of relief. T'Pol then hurried to the manual engineering panel. Since she had known Trip for so long, she'd picked up some tips about engineering. Right now, T'Pol's main goal was to trying to make the shuttlepod go faster, or to increase the shuttle's warp core intake.

After ripping away the metal cover, T'Pol researched the wiring and plasma sockets. Almost like reading a map, Trip once said to her. T'Pol found what she was looking for. Three wires and a pump. Luckily, Vulcan and Human technology were quite alike.

_Ok, switch the red wire to the green socket and pump three times. _T'Pol heard Trip's voice in her head, guiding her. She did as she remembered. A yellow light flashed. _That's a good sign, _she remembered.

_Next, put the blue wire in the red socket and pump thrice again. _Now T'Pol was using her own memory from her engineering and tactics training for the High Council. T'Pol did so and another yellow light began to flash.

_That means that the green wire goes into the blue socket_, T'Pol thought and then pumped the thrust three more times. The last yellow light popped on. T'Pol felt a small amount of pride well up inside of her. _Perhaps I could control these emotions_, T'Pol thought. Increasing the speed of the shuttlepod made it go faster, but it also used up more of the shuttlepod's fuel; meaning that it could go faster, but not for very long. Still, she'd take her chances.

"Vulcan shuttlepod, please respond." The hailing frequency said. T'Pol got up to reply.

"This is the Vulcan shuttlepod. What seems to be the problem?" T'Pol asked.

"We've been scanning your shuttle. You have just increased the amount of warp power. Why?" The voice demanded.

It seemed to T'Pol that the most logical course of action was to respond, but her logic hadn't gotten her into this, it wasn't about to get her out of it. T'Pol lunged for the control panel and turned the shuttlepod away from Munnfa and Koss.

With the Star ship directly behind her and enclosing fast, all T'Pol could do was sit there and try her best to outrun them. There was no point in firing, they clearly outgunned her. They would catch up eventually because she had nowhere near enough power to outrun them. This was completely pointless. When T'Pol had lost the sense to listen to her logic, she seemed to have lost her common sense as well.

Still, she'd rather die than return to Koss. So she would keep running.

"Please drop out of Warp or we'll have no choice but to fire on you." The ship, that her scans indicated were Vulcan, said.

"Full shields." T'Pol ordered the computer. If they were going to fire, she was going to fire first. "Fire!"

T'Pol saw an energy blast leave her shuttle and fire onto the Vulcan ship. It was as effective as a bug on the windshield, as the Human saying went.

She saw the huge ship power up weapons and T'Pol felt utterly trapped. She had used all of the flying tactics she knew, but she was no pilot.

As the shuttle took a couple more blasts, T'Pol shouted "Shield's down to 70."

A few more shots and the shuttle and she would be nothing but space debris. T'Pol moved the shuttle closer towards the ship and fired as she went, being careful that she wasn't in tractor beam range. T'Pol's idea was to go directly above the Star ship, in hopes that they wouldn't be able to fire. She got too close and the impact of the shots they fired rattled her tiny shuttle into perfect firing range for the Vulcans. The shuttlepod was hit six more times, before she noticed that her shields were not holding.

"Shields at 20." T'Pol muttered worriedly.

There was no other option. T'Pol turned the ship around and went to Warp 3; the best T'Pol could do for the ship. The Vulcan ship was on her tail in an instant. Warp 3 was better, but inevitably, she was to be caught or killed. In a well of panic, T'Pol used another tactic. Asking for help.

"Computer, send this message on an open frequency: Shuttlepod being fired at, requires assistance. I repeat, Shuttlepod being fired at, requires assistance." T'Pol almost shouted.

The Vulcan ship was still behind her and firing. There was no way that s hip would find her and help her in time.

"Shields down to 10." T'Pol said. With the Vulcan ship's next few shots would completely destroy her.

"This is your last chance. Stand own and prepare to be tractor beamed. If you refuse, we'll destroy you." The Vulcan's voice floated through the transmission. "You have been identified as T'Pol from the ship Vak'Tar. Captain Koss wants your recapture."

"Thanks not going to happen." T'Pol replied defiantly. Her muscles were still sore and her infections were only worsening. She knew that firing wasn't going to do anything, so she flew the shuttlepod as fast as she could to get out of there.

In an instant, the Vulcan ship fired at her thrusters, disarming every weapon on the shuttle as well as cutting main engines.

T'Pol was literally floating in space. She had no engines, no weapons, no tactics and no more hope.

"I admire your spirit." The Vulcan said neutrally. "So, it's your choice, which would you like. To be returned to Vak'Tar or to be killed."

"I'd rather be killed." T'Pol whispered. A tear slipped down her face. Not out of fear of death, but out of sorrow that she never got to see Trip again.

"Strange. Are you sure you're Vulcan? That was hardly the logical choice." The Vulcan said. T'Pol kept silent. "However, it's your choice." Cutting off transmission, T'Pol watched her scanners as the Vulcan ship powered up their weapons. Several more tears scrolled down her face as she saw the ship about to fire.


	31. Rescued

**Rescued**

"There captain!" Trip almost shouted. He saw a huge Vulcan ship about top fire on a smaller Vulcan shuttlepod, no doubt from Koss's ship. Trip didn't have to guess, he knew it was T'Pol.

They'd just gotten a message from T'Pol, saying she needed help. That was a first.

"That shuttle is down to 10 shields, one more blow and it'll be dust." Malcolm reported.

"Can we bean her out?" Trip suggested.

"Not without her shields being lowered and that's not a risk we can take." The Captain replied.

"Options sir?" Hoshi asked. The Captain thought to himself for a few moments.

"Set in a course to intervene and Malcolm, fire at the Vulcan ship at will." The captain sat back in his chair and Trip sat in T'Pol's chair.

"Yes sir." Malcolm smiled.

As they intervened, the Vulcan ship was collecting energy for a final blast. _Enterprise_ fired at the Vulcan ship, which shook them up a bit, but didn't cause any real damage.

"Sir, we're being hailed." Hoshi reported.

"Open a channel and on screen." The Captain commanded.

"This is not a Starfleet matter. Be on your way." A very pissed off Vulcan said.

"It's a Starfleet matter if you include my science officer." Captain Archer replied calmly.

"I was told she was a traitor to Vulcan and was sent here as a prisoner." The Vulcan looked confused.

"She's a prisoner alright, but it was Koss who kidnapped her!" Trip said angrily. He was still reeling from his last encounter with T'Pol's _ex-_fiancé. If he wasn't 'ex' by now, he had a few things he'd like to say to T'Pol's family.

"That's outrageous! Koss's family are very well known and respected on Vulcan. You, sir, are lying." The Vulcan spat.

"We can give you proof." The Captain offered.

"The, please do." The Vulcan challenged.

"We had reports on a band of traitors led by Koss from the Vulcan databanks. We could send them to you." Captain Archer replied.

"You could have constructed them." The Vulcan accused.

"They have Vulcan imprints on them and there's no possible way we could have forged them." Trip said, gripping his chair tightly. He was anxious to get T'Pol back; these negotiations were taking too long.

"Then send them." The Vulcan said. The Captain gave a short nod to Hoshi and she sent the data.

A couple of beeps from the Vulcan ship indicated that they had got the data. The Vulcan quickly skimmed through the material and he seemed to have found what he was looking for.

"I see," the Vulcan muttered. "I'm terribly sorry captain, please, retrieve your science officer."

"Thank you. We're sorry to have included you in this." The Captain said sincerely.

"I'll take care of Koss. No one lies to me and puts my ship in danger." The Vulcan said and cut transmission. They saw his ship go to warp in the opposite direction.

"Open a channel to T'Pol." The Captain ordered. The screen switched to an image of T'Pol. She looked tired, worn out and physically ill.

"It's good to see you T'Pol." The Captain said. "Sorry it took us so long."

"It's fine." T'Pol said, her gaze flickered to trip. He had a strange look on his face. Relief, perhaps? But something else too.

Cutting her off from her thoughts, the Captain said, "If you lower your shields, we'll beam you aboard."

T'Pol did as she was told while the Captain went to the intercom.

"Transporter Room, beam Sub-Commander T'Pol up from the Vulcan shuttlepod." The Captain ordered.

They watched the screen as T'Pol's solid form disappeared in a swirl of light. In an instant, she was gone.

Trip turned to the Captain. "If it's alright, I think I'll go and meet T'Pol."

The Captain smiled and nodded. Trip gave him an appreciative slap on the back before walking rapidly to the turbo lift.

Malcolm, Hoshi, Travis and the Captain smiled at each other, all with exactly the same thing on their minds.


	32. Sleeping Ill

**Sleeping Ill**

T'Pol had gone straight to her quarters after beaming aboard. The Captain didn't seem to mind, as he could understand her being tired.

T'Pol's cuts were still badly infected and weren't getting any better. Her bruises were the size of apples and it still hurt to touch them. Still, she was too tired to go to Sickbay and there was always tomorrow. The muscle relaxant like drug had begun to wear away, but she still felt drained of energy, which wasn't surprising considering the emotional ups and downs she'd had today.

From the moment T'Pol had gotten into her room, she had half walked, half limped to her bed, collapsing on it when she got there.

Almost a second later, her door buzzed. T'Pol inwardly groaned.

"Come." She managed to spit out. Trip entered and her mood suddenly improved. Trip saw her and rushed over to the bed.

"Oh my god T'Pol! We've gotta get you to Sickbay." Trip said worriedly. T'Pol tried to sit up, without much success.

"I'll go tomorrow, I just need to rest now." T'Pol said, not taking her eyes off him. It had been too long since he'd held her in his arms. How long? A week? A month? She'd known it had only been a little over a day, but it seemed so much longer.

"Are you sure?" Trip asked. His face tensed up when he was worried and T'Pol couldn't help but love it.

T'Pol smiled and said, "Yes." Coughing slightly.

"At least let me clean you up a bit." Trip offered. He disappeared into her bathroom and reappeared a few seconds later with a bowl of water and a towel.

He bent down beside her, dipped the towel into the water and began to clean up her wounds. T'Pol flinched.

"Sorry, it'll sting a little." Trip smiled and T'Pol felt warm inside.

"It's okay." T'Pol smiled to reassure him. She'd learnt many things from Trip, but she'd learnt to be more human too. She felt that deep inside her she had this human part, wanting to be recognised. Where it had come from, she'd never know, but she was beginning to except that everything would turn out fine.

After a few moments of having the pleasure of just looking at each other, Trip continued to clean up the masses of dried green blood.

"You know, you had me very worried darlin'." Trip smiled and T'Pol inwardly smiled too. Once, she was annoyed and uncomfortable at being called 'darlin'', but after today, she didn't mind at all. It felt right.

"Sorry, I'll be more careful next time." T'Pol joked. She knew that trip appreciated humour and for some reason, she liked to please him. It seemed that when he was happy, so was she. Trip smiled, but averted his gaze, as if he was trying to avoid something. T'Pol instantly picked up on this.

"Is something wrong?" T'Pol asked, stopping his hand from tending to her face.

"Nah, everything's –" Trip smiled unconvincingly.

"Trip." T'Pol hardened her gaze.

"When I saw you on the screen, apart from the beaten up and tired part of you, I also saw that you were, well, sad." Trip felt self-conscious. "And I just wondered _who _you were directing that at."

Trip got up and T'Pol tried to sit up again as best she could.

"How could you see that I was sad, the tears had –" T'Pol stopped herself. She'd never admitted to anyone when she'd been crying although it was a rare thing.

"You cried?" Trip almost shouted in disbelief. He came over to sit next to her on the bed. "Why?"

T'Pol fixed her gaze on the floor, she didn't budge.

"T'Pol." Trip lifted her chin with his finger, forcing her to make eye contact. T'Pol could see herself taking comfort in Trip and crying all over again because he was there and she was there and they were both there together.

"When I was in that shuttlepod and the ship was about to fire, I was scared for the first time in my life." T'Pol whispered, as if she was ashamed.

"That's okay. A lot of people are afraid of death." Trip answered soothingly.

"I'm not afraid of death." T'Pol said, kind of defensively. "I was afraid that I'd never see you again. I think that I'm in love with you."

Trip stared wide-eyed at T'Pol and he was completely speechless. T'Pol looked to the floor. She'd never cared for anyone like this, she felt a strong connection with him deep inside of her, a growing feeling. He'd seen her at her worst, her best and through it all; he'd never left her.

"Really?" Trip asked, a little high pitched.

"Yes." T'Pol replied, still looking at the floor.

"Wow." Trip breathed and sat back down next to her. "What does this mean?"

"I don't know." T'Pol muttered.

"T'Pol, you know I care about you deeply too, but –"

"You don't love me." T'Pol finished, looking truly hurt.

"No, I do. If anything, I do love you. What I was about to say was that I don't think we should rush into anything and then have regrets. Let's take it slow, okay?" Trip looked at her, silently pleading that she'd understand. He had seen a whole new side of T'Pol, a vulnerable side.

"Considering how we got started, that may be tough." T'Pol smiled and Trip laughed. He gave her a quick kiss; it was short, but perfectly sweet.

"I should let you rest." Trip got up to leave.

"Trip." T'Pol stopped him.

"Yeah." Trip turned around.

"Would you just hold me tonight?" T'Pol asked. She looked like a homeless kitten asking for milk.

"Sure." Trip answered. He went behind her and rested his head on her pillow, holding T'Pol protectively in his strong embracive arms.


	33. Dead Tired

**Dead Tired**

Trip woke up with a smile, still in the same position as he fell asleep in, and still with T'Pol in his arms.

She'd fallen asleep before him. T'Pol was worn out physically and emotionally. Her breathing was so quiet that Trip couldn't hear her. Sleeping comfortably no doubt.

Trip rolled over to check T'Pol's clock and it was 0800 hours. Time for work in half an hour, but he needed to get T'Pol to Doctor Phlox to fix her up. Despite his efforts, Trip couldn't clear up all of her cuts and her bruises were still large.

Shaking her gently, trip whispered, "T'Pol, honey, time to wake up."

T'Pol didn't move and Trip peered over her body to glance at her face. Although T'Pol wasn't known to be particularly tanned, her face was a ghostly white.

"T'Pol!" trip shook her more violently. Still nothing. Trip turned T'Pol onto her back and put her hand near her nose. She wasn't breathing.

"Crap!" Trip swore.

Picking T'Pol up, he rushed her to sickbay. Running through the corridors, Trip was breathing heavily. He sprinted through Sickbay's automatic doors with an unconscious T'Pol in his arms.

"Phlox!" Trip yelled whilst placing T'Pol on a medical bed. Coming out of his office, Doctor Phlox saw Trip and T'Pol. "What happened?"

Phlox spring into action, but Trip wouldn't leave her side.

"I woke up and she wasn't breathing." Trip shouted. Obviously he didn't cope well under pressure. Phlox was loading her into the full body scanner.

"What can I do?" Trip asked, very frustrated.

"At the moment, I need you to leave." Phlox pushed Trip out of Sickbay.

"Dammit!" Trip shouted and punched the wall.


	34. Awakening

**Awakening**

T'Pol blinked her eyes a couple of times before opening them completely. Light flooded her eyes blinding her temporarily.

She was lying down, but every muscle in her body felt tense and unused. Struggling, T'Pol tried to sit up.

"T'Pol." A faint voice said. It was Doctor Phlox, but he sounded fuzzy, for lack of a better term. She saw him, but her sight didn't seem right, almost like a delayed reaction.

"Doctor." T'Pol slurred. _Slurred? Why am I like this? What happened? _T'Pol held her head in her hands; it throbbed deeply.

Doctor Phlox walked over to the intercom. "Captain Archer and Commander Tucker, please report to Sickbay."

Returning over to T'Pol, Doctor Phlox got out his tricorder and began scanning T'Pol's vital signs.

"How are you feeling?" Phlox asked.

"Strange. My vision is blurred, my head throbs and my muscles are all stiff. I also feel like I'm going to be sick." T'Pol replied, placing her hand on her stomach.

"That's just the effects of your illness, nothing to worry about. As for the sickness, it's normal with your condition." Phlox reassured her.

"What condition?" T'Pol asked.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Phlox evaded her question.

"Lying next to Trip after I had returned to the _Enterprise._" T'Pol replied.

"Good. No memory loss." Phlox chuckled.

T'Pol hardly found her experience amusing. "Memory loss? Doctor, would you kindly tell me what's going on?"

Before the doctor could answer, Trip and the Captain came fumbling through the doors. Trip just stood there for a moment, gazing at T'Pol. After closer examination, T'Pol realised that her cuts had been cured and her bruises were going down. T'Pol still felt a little confused as to why everyone was acting so strange. Trip came over and hugged T'Pol.

"Are you alright?" Trip asked, then turning to Doctor Phlox. "Is she alright?"

"She'll be fine." Phlox answered, calming Trip down.

"Would someone like to explain what's going on? The last thing I remember is sleeping in my bed last night, I wake up this morning in Sickbay and you're all acting strange." T'Pol said, frustrated. Frustrated and tired.

"Last night? Didn't Phlox tell you?" The Captain sounded shocked.

"I was about to before you came in." Phlox muttered.

"Darlin', you've been unconscious for 2 weeks." Trip said. T'Pol was speechless. _That couldn't be right. Could it? It kind of made sense. The muscle relaxant, fuzziness and blurred vision could all be caused by a lack of using them. _

"Why?" T'Pol managed to choke out. Trip, Archer and Phlox looked at each other as if they were telepathically talking about her.

"When I woke up, you weren't breathing. I rushed you to Sickbay and after Phlox had resuscitated you, he told us that the drugs pumped into you had a delayed reaction to your bloodstream, which resulted in a complete collapse of the systems in your body." Trip explained.

"To be truthful, we didn't think you would be able to pull yourself out of the coma for a very, very long time." Phlox added.

"Thank you doctor." Captain Archer supplied subtly.

"Travis to Captain Archer." The intercom buzzed.

"Captain Archer here, go ahead Travis." The Captain replied.

"You're needed on the bridge."

"On my way." The Captain switched off. He turned to T'Pol apologetically. "Hope you feel better T'Pol, I need my science officer back."

"Yes sir." T'Pol answered. With that, the Captain left for the bridge.

After the Captain had left, T'Pol noticed that Doctor Phlox looked a bit twitchy, to put it bluntly. He left herself and Trip alone, probably sensing that they needed it.

"So how are you?" Trip asked awkwardly.

"Confused mostly, and a bit queasy. And you?" T'Pol answered.

"Relieved." Trip smiled. "I gotta tell you, when I woke up and you weren't breathing, it was the scariest thing that had ever happened to me." Trip confessed.

"But you got me here." T'Pol embraced him on the very lumpy and uncomfortable bed. It hurt seeing T'Pol wearing all of those life support wires sticking out at her from all angles. It didn't look right.

"We need to stick together more, okay darlin'." Trip smiled and T'Pol nodded. She was still dealing with her emotional issues, which had only seemed to grow when she was with Trip, but T'Pol had a feeling deep inside of her that something was not right.

Trip and T'Pol shared one final stare before Doctor Phlox reappeared taking out his tricorder. "Well, your bruises are healing nicely and your cuts have been cleaned up. Now that you're awake, it signifies that the drug is moving through your body and should be drained out of you within the next couple of days." Phlox analysed, shutting down his tricorder.

"If the drug would have passed through me in the next week, how could I have been in a coma?" T'Pol questioned.

"If you hadn't of woken up when you did, the drug would have left traces around your body so much as to leave you neurologically damaged." Phlox explained. "But that won't happen now. You will be very tired over the next few days, but you won't be in danger. I recommend that you return to work after 2 weeks of resting."

T'Pol and Trip exchanged appreciative glances to the doctor. They grabbed each other's hand for support.

"There's one other thing you should be aware of." Phlox took a deep breath. "Sub-Commander, I may have found the cause of your emotional outbreaks and the queasiness you mentioned earlier."

"Well great, what is it?" Trip smiled. _Finally, some answers._

"When I scanned your vital signs, I noticed that something was out of place. At the time I presumed it was just the beginning of an illness which would have the affect of the common cold, but after looking into it more thoroughly, it may be a little more serious than that." Phlox began.

"You mean she could get violently ill again?" Trip asked, his worry returning.

"No, no, nothing like that. As it turns out, your body is going through a lot of pressure and it needs a way to dispel some of that energy, hence the outbursts." Phlox explained.

"Okay, but that doesn't explain why it's happening _now_." Trip pushed. T'Pol was getting increasingly uncomfortable and anxious.

"It seems that the Commander and yourself have created a foetus, which was most likely the reason you came out of your coma as fast as you did, that's why." Phlox breathed.

T'Pol and Trip exchanged glances, not fully hearing what the doctor had just said.

"Doctor, are you saying that I'm…"

"Pregnant." Phlox smiled. "Congratulations."

THE END


End file.
